[Rate of growth of primary cancer of the breast].

Repeated mammography was used to study the rate of primary tumor growth in 64 cases of breast cancer. Primary tumor size doubling time varied 2.9-459 days (98.7 +/- 10.9 days on the average). Four patterns of tumor growth rate were identified: (1) very swift (average doubling time--20.2 days)--in 20.2% of patients; (2) rapid (average doubling time--59.2 days)--37.5% (3) moderate (average doubling time--91.2 days)--14.1%, and (4) slow (average doubling time--212.5 days)--28.1%.