Arthur Purdy Stout and papilloma of the breast. Comments on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

In 1951 Haagensen, Stout, and Phillips described a series of patients treated for benign intraductal papillary breast lesions. They emphasized the importance of distinguishing between "microscopic papillomas" and "gross papillomas." While the former tended to be multicentric and potentially precancerous, follow-up of 108 women who had solitary papillomas revealed no subsequent carcinomas. Four women had additional papillomas in the ipsilateral breast and one patient developed a papilloma of the contralateral breast. Review of the literature since 1927 reveals a total of 612 patients who reportedly had a papilloma treated by excision. Subsequent carcinoma was described in 23 cases (11 or 2% ipsilateral; 10 or 2% contralateral; two or 0.3% bilateral). These data indicate that excision of a solitary papilloma from the breast does not indicate that the breast is predisposed to develop carcinoma at a later date.