Carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia in radial scars and complex sclerosing lesions: importance of lesion size and patient age.

One hundred and twenty-six radial scars and complex sclerosing lesions from 91 women were examined to determine the incidence of and the clinical and pathological factors associated with the development of carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia within them. There was a clear relationship between the presence of carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia and the size of the lesion. This was not, however, a progressive relationship, there being a cut-off point about 6-7 mm, below which carcinoma was very uncommon and above which it was relatively frequent. A similar relationship was seen with patient age. Carcinoma was not seen in lesions removed from women under 40, was rare in the decade 41-50 and was relatively common above this age but with no further increase in the over 60s. A significantly higher incidence of carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia was encountered in scars detected by mammographic screening and could be explained by lesion size and the ages of the patients from which they were removed. No relationship was found between the presence of carcinoma within radial scars and complex sclerosing lesions and the existence of carcinoma in the residual breast tissue when direct extension was excluded. The carcinomas identified in the scars were of variable type and included small and large cell ductal carcinoma in situ, lobular carcinoma in situ and invasive carcinoma of tubular and ductal types. In situ carcinoma and atypical hyperplasia involved a very variable percentage of the epithelium of the lesions with mean values for ductal carcinoma in situ of 32%, lobular carcinoma in situ 25% and atypical hyperplasia 25%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)