[Clinico-pathological studies of non-palpable breast lesions with mammographically detected microcalcifications]

Fourty-two patients with suspected non-palpable cancer of the breast due to microcalcifications detected by mammography were studied. Histologically, carcinoma was found in 17 cases (40.5%) and benign lesions in 25 cases (32 foci) at biopsy or operation. Eight cases of these carcinomas were noninvasive and seven were microinvasive. Axillary metastasis was present in only one case. Sites of calcifications were confined to the area of carcinoma in 12 patients; both within a carcinoma and adjacent benign lesions in 3; only within the adjacent benign diseases in two. The features of microcalcification was not always useful to differentiate accurately the benign from the malignant. Therefore, local excision is essential to ensure histological diagnosis in the non-palpable breast lesions with microcalcification.