[The significance of the nipple in carcinoma of the female breast (author's transl)].

In 1,000 specimens of mastectomy with microscopically proven carcinoma of the breast, cancer was found in the nipple in approximately every fifth case. Extension of the carcinoma into the nipple is more frequent in the higher age group of women. Extension into the nipple is more common with larger tumor size. The microscopic growth pattern of the carcinoma has an influence on the presence of tumor in the nipple whereas the microscopic grading for malignancy according to WHO has no clear cut correlation to tumor in the nipple. The frequency of extension of carcinoma of the breast in the nipple in our series and in most series in the literature is in our opinion a contra-indication to conservative types of operation.