Abstract
In 110 consecutive, medicolegal autopsies of young and middle-aged women (range 20-54 years) the breasts were examined by an extensive histopathologic method and by correlative specimen radiography. Malignancy was found in 22 women (20%) of which only one was known to have had clinical invasive breast cancer (IBC). At autopsy 2 women had IBC (2%), the remaining in situ carcinoma (in situ BC) of microfocal type (18%), i.e. 15 (14%) intraductal carcinomas (DCIS), 4 (3%) lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) and one (1%) both DCIS and LCIS. Forty-five per cent of the women with malignancy had multicentric and 41% had bilateral lesions. Forty-five per cent of all histologically confirmed malignant lesions were identified by specimen radiography. Adenosis, benign epithelial hyperplasia, papilloma and duct ectasia were positively associated with malignancy. In addition malignancy was significantly more frequent among women aged more than 40 years, with late age at first full-term pregnancy, with alcohol abuse and with steatosis or cirrhosis of the liver. The results suggest that clinically occult in situ BC are frequent in young and middle-aged women.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 24 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $10.79 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nielsen, M., Thomsen, J., Primdahl, S. et al. Breast cancer and atypia among young and middle-aged women: a study of 110 medicolegal autopsies. Br J Cancer 56, 814–819 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1987.296
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1987.296
This article is cited by
-
The premise of personalized immunotherapy for cancer dormancy
Oncogene (2020)
-
Pathologic findings in reduction mammoplasty specimens: a surrogate for the population prevalence of breast cancer and high-risk lesions
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (2019)
-
Extracellular vesicles in cancer — implications for future improvements in cancer care
Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology (2018)
-
A history of exploring cancer in context
Nature Reviews Cancer (2018)