[Examination of mammography records. Retrospective study of patients examined in the decade 1967-1976].

A retrospective study has been made of mammography data with a view to identifying and analysing a number of epidemiologico-clinical and socio-medical factors involved in the problem of breast cancer. Particular attention was paid to the existence of risk indicators related to malignant cancer of the breast. Routine statistical tests on the data showed that patients with breast cancer differ from other women (healthy or with benign neoplasia, or dysplasia, or suspected malignity, or inflammation) because of the higher frequency of certain features such as the high average age, late menopause, early menarche, longer interval between menarche and first term pregnancy, family history of malignant cancer of all types and of exclusively breast localization. This analysis proved to be in agreement with other data reported in the literature, however, a number of factors considered to be risk indicators were not found: i.e. absence of pregnancy, absence of breast feeding and reduction in the total breast feeding time.