Clinical analysis of 276 cases of non-palpable TO breast cancer

Objective Discussion of diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of non-palpable TO breast cancer. Methods Between 1978 and 1997, 9,980 female patients with operable breast cancer were treated surgically, of which 276 were determined to have TO breast cancer. Most TO breast cancers could be detected promptly with careful examination of presenting symptoms, such as nipple discharge, local thickening of the breast, nipple erosion, nipple retraction and postmenopausal mastalgia, while 12 cases were detected by routine mammography of the contralateral breast. Results All patients were treated surgically and their tissue subjected to histopathological examination. Most cases (73.0%) were noninvasive or early invasive carcinoma. Axillary lymph nodes metastases were found in 7.69% of 234 mastectomy cases. Conclusion The survival rate was significantly increased if the tumor was in an early stage. The 5-, 10-, 15-years survival rates were 98.1%, 94.6% and 90.3%, respectively.