Microscopic invasion of the skin and nipple in breast cancer

Five-hundred-sixty patients with infiltrating breast carcinoma who had undergone radical mastectomy were evaluated microscopically and clinically, with the aim of verifying which was the real microscopic invasion of the skin and large ducts under the nipple, in the absence of clinical signs. Four-hundred-fifty-eight patients without clinical signs of cutaneous invasion of the skin, resulted microscopically interested 3 times (0.6%). Likewise, the large ducts and the nipple resulted interested in 45 patients (9.8%). These results depended both on the site, more or less approximative to the nipple, and on the dimensions of the primitive tumour. Interesting preoperative clinical information on the microscopic invasion of the structures in question can be obtained so as to allow a possible salvation of the structures in occasion of radical mastectomy, foreseeing a reconstruction without skin grafts from other sites.