[The importance of mammography in relationship to the number of treated carcinomas of the breast. Partial results from 1976--1978 of a long term study (author's transl)].

From 1976 to 1978 11, 197 women were examined clinically and mammographically. Biopsy material from 1,673 breasts were examined microscopically. In 536 cases, or almost every third case (32%), a carcinoma of the breast was detected. The cancer was bilateral in 19 cases and the total number of women was therefore 517. A clinically occult tumour was only found in 7.7% (40 of 517) of the cases. 5% of these patients were high risk patients and 2.7% preventive examinations. 5 women with occult carcinoma of the breast were under age 40 and 14 under age 50. Benign changes of the glandular tissue were found in 59.5% of the cases. Marked proliferative changes were found in 4.6% of the cases and carcinoma in situ was found in 3.8% of the patients. In the age group 45--54 benign and proliferative changes of the parenchyma occured almost twice as often as cancers. The ratio between benign and malignant findings was 1:1 in the age group 55--59 and was less than 1:2 in the age group over 70. A sophistication of the mammograhic technique must be obtained. A thorough microscopic examination of tissue from subcutaneous mastectomies and tissue obtained at the time of reduction mammoplasties showed occasionally unexpected malignant tissue in an unexpected location. Especially these cases are suitable for later comparison to the mammographies.