The case against tylectomy for carcinoma of the breast. The factor of multicentricity.

Five hundred consecutive cases of breast carcinoma were studied to determine the incidence of multicentric lesions in the resected specimens. When residual tumor in juxtaposition to the primary tumor or biopsy cavity is excluded, 41.6 per cent of specimens exhibited multicentric foci of tumor; 31 per cent of such foci were in sectors or quadrants remote from the primary tumor. In more than half of these cases the lymph nodes were uninvolved and cure rate would have been maximal had these multicentric tumor foci been removed. These findings confirm previous similar studies and we consider tylectomy an inappropriate mode of therapy for breast cancer.