Significance of preclinical radiologic abnormalities of the breast. Apropos of 87 histological verifications

: This retrospective study was carried out on 80 patients who had abnormalities discovered on mammography without any associated clinical signs. In some patients bilateral abnormalities were found so that 87 biopsies were carried out and this gave the result that 45 of the lesions were shown to be benign, 18 lesions were borderline and 24 lesions (27.6%) were of carcinomata. The frequency of these lesions goes up to 32% if areas of microcalcification only are considered. These tumours diagnosed in this sort of way, whether they are canal lesions or lobular lesions, usually show favourable histological features as far as invasion, size and lymphatic involvement is concerned. Borderline lesions are a histological group with as yet no fully evaluated significance but it has seemed to us interesting to describe them.