Diagnostic and therapeutic approach to minimal breast cancer.

The term "Minimal Breast Cancer" includes different neoplastic changes, the common characteristic of which is an high survival rate (90% of cases) when the treatment is early started. In all patients with palpable nodules and in patients "at risk", thermography, mammography, xerography, echography and cytological examination by suction-needle, must be performed to rule out the existence of a "Minimal Breast Cancer". The methods of treatment preferred by the Authors, according to the different types of pathological changes, are the following: a) through follow-up or, alternatively, subcutaneous mastectomy when a "lobular carcinoma in situ"; b) subcutaneous mastectomy and axillary emptying when the diagnosis is found in "intraductal carcinoma"; c) mastectomy, performed according to Patey's technique, or removal of all the involved breast quadrant, axillary emptying and radiotherapy of the residual glandular parenchyma in case of ductal carcinoma or invasive lobular carcinoma less than 0.5 cm in diameter.