[Breast cancer in the catchment area of the Graz Institute of Pathology. Evaluation of morphologic parameters based on 1,510 cases].

The patient's age, tumour size, histological type and degree of differentiation as well as involvement of axillary lymph nodes are decisive for prognosis and therapy of breast cancer. Moreover these parameters reflect the achievement of early diagnosis and the surgical standard of treatment of breast carcinomas. Therefore we retrospectively reviewed 1510 cases diagnosed from 1984-1987. Non-invasive carcinomas were diagnosed in 4%. 75% of them were classified as intraductal carcinoma and 25% as lobular carcinoma in situ. 96% of the tumours were invasive at time of diagnosis. Invasive ductal carcinoma (NOS-type) was found in 70.2%, invasive lobular carcinoma in 12.3%. 3.2% of the tumours showed both ductal and lobular differentiation and 2.3% corresponded to invasive ductal carcinoma with a predominantly intraductal component. Medullary and mucinous carcinomas were detected in 2.1% and 2% of cases, respectively. Papillary carcinomas were observed in 0.9%, the frequency of other histological types was less than 1%. 44% of the tumours corresponded to UICC-category pT1, 38% to pT2, 6% to pT3 and 8% to pT4. A meaningful correlation of tumour size and axillary lymph node involvement was possible in only 906 cases, in which 10 or more lymph nodes were verified histologically. Lymph node metastases were detected in 23% of tumour category pT1 and in 47% of category pT2. PT3- and pT4-tumours metastasized to axillary lymph nodes in 77 and 86% of cases, respectively.