Residual breast cancer at a distance from the primary tumor

Excision of a primary breast cancer followed by irradiation is an accepted method of definitive treatment for stage I and II breast cancer. There is controversy as to the importance of tumor free margins and the presence of residual disease. This study prospectively evaluated 25 mastectomy specimens for residual tumor adjacent to and away from the primary biopsy site. Sixty per cent of the specimens contained residual tumor. In the patients with a primary diagnosis of infiltrating ductal cancer, 44 per cent had residual disease, whereas 100 per cent of patients with an intraductal component in addition to the infiltrating cancer had residual tumor. In one mastectomy specimen, tumor was present in nonadjacent areas of the breast even though there was no residual tumor close to the original biopsy site. This situation is an unusual finding.