[Diagnostic significance of calcifications in the mammogram]

Since microcalcifications occur in mammary carcinoma in a quite specific manner and above all very early, i.e. long before an infiltrative focal shadow can be recognized in the mammogram, the microcalcifications have proved to be a significant and in many cases the only early symptom of small, clinically still occult mammary carcinomas. On the basis of microcalcifications, we are so far been able to detect a total of 220 clinically unequivocal occult small and very small mammary carcinomas with an average tumor size of 6 X 8 mm, and were thus able to apply the necessary and decisive early therapy. Today, microcalcifications enable us to detect to an increasing extent even preinvasive stages of mammary carcinoma and also to verify them by biopsy.