[Involvement of the mamillae in breast cancer]

500 cases of carcinoma of the female breast were analysed in connection with the problem whether there is any involvement of the mamilla in this disease. The mamilla was found to be involved in 98 cases (19.6%), the incidence rate of this involved increasing with advancing age. A comparison of the types of carcinoma showed that the largest group (44%) was represented by the solid carcinomas. The percentage of carcinoma distribution was approximately the same as the share of mamilla involvement, with the exception of adenoid carcinoma. Only 12% of the mamillae were involved with a tumour diameter of less than 3 cm, whereas in the case of larger carcinomas the percentage was 30%. The distance between tumour and mamilla is also important. If the mamilla was affected, the homolateral axilla was also affected in 54% of the cases, but this figure dropped to 27% if the mamilla had remained free. This leads to the conclusion that while a conservative, non-radical surgical treatment is fundamentally possible, the selection and the formation given to the patients must be done with great care. The problem of multicentricity remains. Long-term comparisons have not been made so far.