Paget's disease of the nipple. Clinical and pathological review of 109 female patients.

The most relevant literature concerning Paget's disease of the breast is reviewed. A clinical and pathological study of female patients with Paget's disease of the breast observed during 30 years at the Lisbon 'Instituto Português de Oncologia' is carried out and its results are discussed. The low incidence of the disease in this series, when compared with those described in the available literature, is pointed out. The absence of a relation between the type of the cutaneous lesions and the histological type of the underlying tumor is emphasized. The similarity of the microscopical aspects, whichever the histological type of the underlying tumor, is considered. The differences in the clinical behavior of the tumors, related to their histological types, and the differences in respect to age, menarch, menopause, breast feeding, primary lesion and percentage of adenopathies observed between patients with and without a palpable mass, are enumerated. The authors conclude that the cure rate after 5 years is lower in patients with palpable tumors and adenopathies and in the cases with onset before menopause. The cure rate also decreases in relation to the histological type of the underlying tumor.