The study on 979 cases of breast cancer. —Change of clinico-pathologic features of breast cancer during the past 18 years —

Nine hundred and seventy-nine cases of breast cancer in our hospital for 18 years from 1968 to 1985 were classified into 2 groups according to the periods. Group 1 consited of 413 cases during the period from 1968 to 1976, and group 2 consisted of 566 cases from 1977 to 1985. Two groups were compared clinico-pathologically. The incidence of breast cancer in our hospital was increased with time, reflecting the recent increase in the incidence of the breast cancer. In group 2, the advance of the diagnostic procedures led to the more increase in the number of the early cases, and modified radical mastectomy preserving pectoral muscle was more frequently performed than extended radical mastectomy. The main stream of adjuvant therapy changed from radiation to systemic chemotherapy, and furthermore, the endocrinological treatment increased since the measurement of estrogen receptor became popular. The number of the elderly cases of breast cancer (older than 50 years old) and cases of infiltrating lobular carcinoma were slightly increased in group 2 than in group 1, suggesting the features of the breast cancer in Japan have become similar to those in Europe and America.