Multicentricity in breast cancer: a submacroscopic study.

One hundred human female breasts surgically removed by radical mastectomy for clinical cancer were analyzed under a dissecting microscope to search for other submacroscopic (less than 0.5 cm) foci collateral to and independent from the clinical one. These foci were found in 36 percent of cases, either in situ (17 percent), or infiltrating (12 percent), or both in situ and infiltrating (7 percent). This high percentage of multiple cancer confirms previous data, suggesting the wide intramammary distribution of breast cancer disease. Multicentricity appears to be significantly associated with the incidence of familial breast cancer (p less than 0.05) and advanced patient age in the range between 71 and 80 years (p less than 0.005). Axillary lymph node metastases are significantly associated with collateral foci of in situ cancer (p less than 0.025), but not with submacroscopic foci of infiltrating cancer and the general character of the mammary glandular parenchyma, tumor size or histologic type of the clinical neoplasm. The critical question is whether multicentricity makes a difference clinically and especially to women who do not have their entire breast removed. Radical mastectomy results in a severe cosmetic and functional problem for patients. According to many authors, the goal of the treatment should be the removal of breast cancer by conservative surgical techniques (lumpectomy, subcutaneous mastectomy, quadrantectomy), using adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. The use of radiotherapy as primary treatment of early breast cancer has been also suggested. There is disagreement about surgical management of breast cancer. In fact, some investigators emphasize that the natural biologic history of multicentric cancers has not been documented by any adequate follow-up series in women who do not have their entire breast removed. Thus far, no difference has been seen in disease-free or overall survival between groups of patients with early breast cancer treated by an alternative therapeutic procedure and patients treated by radical mastectomy. However, Veronesi et al. (1981) refer to 4 second primary tumors of the ipsilateral breast in the 352 cases of small cancers treated by quadrantectomy, axillary dissection, and adjuvant radiotherapy. Moreover, Hellman et al. (1980), using radiation therapy without mastectomy for the primary treatment of 176 patients with early breast cancer, found 1 case of new cancer in a separate quadrant. Further evaluation is necessary to establish the long-term results of the alternative treatments of breast cancer and for the understanding of the clinical significance of microscopic multifocal tumor in the mammary gland.