Natural history of benign and malignant breast tumors seen in a screening center. 15-year retrospective study.

Two hundred patients with benign (173) or malignant (27) breast lesions were compared with 102 controls without any breast pathology but who had a family history of breast cancer. All these women had been first seen in a private breast clinic between 1971 and 1977. In 168 benign cases, 230 biopsies had been performed prior to the first visit to our screening Centers. The average age was 32.7 years at the time of the first benign biopsy, and 52 years at the time of cancer diagnosis. In this series, the ACTM (anamnesis, clinical examination, thermography, mastography) diagnostic scoring system, which we have been using since 1974, gave 6.7% false-negatives in the cancer group, 1% false-positive in the controls, no false-positive in 171 benign cases. A family history of breast and other malignant tumors was more frequent in the cancer group. Breast cancer patients had more children and fewer miscarriages. The hysterectomy rate (mean age, 40.4 years) was an appalling 62.5% of the whole series. Cancer cases had far less hysterectomies (31.8%) and a later spontaneous menopause (average, 51 years, as compared to 46.5).