[The correlation between evidence of breast-cancer in the nipple and the axillary lymph nodes in cancer of the breast in women (author's transl)].

In a random sample of 1,000 mastectomies from microscopically proven cancer of the breast the concomitant evidence of cancer in the nipple and the axillary lymph nodes were studied. Cases with evidence of cancer in the nipple showed axillary metastases twice as often as cases without evidence of cancer in the nipple. In cases with diffuse or lymphangetic evidence of cancer in the nipple the incidence of metastases in the axillary lymph nodes was twice as high in cases with intra-ductal or paget type evidence of carcinoma in the nipple. In cases with evidence of cancer in the nipple, the incidence of metastases in the axillary lymph nodes decreases more with age than in cases without evidence of breast cancer in the nipple. With increasing tumour size the evidence of breast cancer in the axillary lymph nodes was higher in cases without evidence of cancer in the nipple than in cases with evidence of cancer in the nipple. The microscopic differentiation and the grade of malignancy also had an influence on the incidence of axillary metastases in correlation to evidence of cancer in the nipple.