Mammary skin thickening as a prognostic sign in breast cancer.

It has been claimed that mammary skin oedema measured from mammograms of breast cancer patients is a valuable prognostic sign. To test this finding mammograms of 70 patients were reviewed and the status after a follow-up of five years was clarified. 37% of the patients had thickening over 0.25 mm above the tumour and 20% in the inferior part of the breast regardless of the localization of the tumour. The oedematous thickening of the skin was dependent on the tumour size and depth, but independent of its localization. The thickening did not correlate with involved axillary nodes but correlated with the disease-free interval provided that the thickening was over 1.5 mm above the tumour or over 0.75 mm in the inferior part of the breast.