Microcalcifications in the breast--a blessing or a curse? A critical review.

70-90% of the biopsies performed on account of microcalcifications on mammograms are unnecessary. Most of the time descriptions of diagnostic criteria are irrelevant and vague. It is confusing, that lobular carcinoma in situ is considered to be a real cancer, as happens frequently, and that histologically dissimilar ductal carcinomas and benign abnormalities of different origin are simply considered as 'malignant' or 'benign' and subsequently reported as such. This opinion results from an analysis of articles on microcalcifications published between 1951 and 1984. It is the author's opinion that the number of needless biopsies can be reduced drastically.