Intraductal carcinoma. Analysis of presentation, pathologic findings, and outcome of disease.

A retrospective analysis of 52 patients with intraductal carcinoma or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and 30 patients with microinvasive DCIS was performed. All patients but one were treated by mastectomy. The average follow-up was 5 1/2 years. The clinical presentation of the patients having DCIS only included the presence of a mass in 33% (17/52), nipple discharge in 34% (18/52), or suspicious mammographic finding in 33% (17/52), whereas in those patients having DCIS with microinvasion, the initial presenting symptom was a mass in 63% (19/30) of the patients, nipple discharge in 13% (4/30), and mammographic finding in 23% (7/30). The presence of axillary lymph node metastasis was identified in one of the 52 patients with DCIS and six (20%) of the 30 patients with DCIS and microinvasion. Associated carcinomas in the mastectomy specimens of patients with DCIS were as follows: DCIS, 18% (9/51); lobular carcinoma in situ, 13% (7/51); Paget's disease, 8% (4/51); and invasive carcinoma, 2% (1/51). In the 30 patients with microinvasion, DCIS was found in other quadrants in 23% (7/51) of the patients; lobular carcinoma in situ, 7% (2/51); Paget's disease, 13% (4/51); and invasive carcinoma, 7% (2/51). There was one death due to cancer in the patients with DCIS only. Of the patients diagnosed as having DCIS with microinvasion, seven patients have developed metastasis and four have died of the disease.