This is a resume of a Breast Cancer Survey carried out by the American College of Surgeons in 1978. Four hundred and ninety-eight hospitals in 47 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico participated, contributing a total of 24,136 female patients with histologically confirmed breast cancer. In these patients, five-year cure rates were 60.5% for clinically localized disease and 33.9% for regional disease. Five-year survival rates were 72.8% for localized disease and 49.1% for regional disease. From the 1960's into the early 1970's, there was a gradual shift away from radical mastectomy towards so-called modified radical mastectomy. In a group of patients treated by either radical or modified mastectomies, the axillary nodal status, size of the tumor, and location of the tumor were examined in relation to the prognosis. In the study of number of metastatic nodes in the axilla, there were reduced cure and survival rates in patients with one or more positive nodes as compared to those with negative axillary nodes. With the increase in the number of positive nodes, there was a continuing associated decline in survival and cure. The clinical size of the tumor also correlated well to the prognosis. With the increase in the size of the tumor, there was a gradual increase in the probability of axillary nodal involvement. However, in the group of patients with tumor size smaller than 1 cm, axillary metastasis occurred in 25%. When the axillary nodes were involved, the cure rate in those patients was not significantly better than the rates for those with larger primary tumors in this study. Tumors located in the medial half of the breast were associated with a slightly lower cure rate than those in the lateral half. Young women under 35 years of age had poorer survival and cure rates, although in women 35-44 years of age, the five-year results were comparable to the older group of patients. In blacks, breast cancer was diagnosed in a relatively more advanced stage than in whites. Survival and cure rates were generally lower for blacks, and such lower rates seem to be associated with the relatively advanced stage of the disease.

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As part of the national survey on the tumorigenesis of oral contraceptive drugs conducted by the American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer, a histologic study was made of 94 cases of liver tumors in users and non-users of oral contraceptives. Pathologic criteria were established and then the slides were studied; the results were tabulated to determine the significance of each of the criteria as related to the use of contraceptives. These criteria included tumor size, peliosis hepatis, hemorrhage, necrosis, fibrosis, thrombosis, and vascular alterations of the intima and media.Cases of focal nodular hyperplasia in pill users exhibited greater vascular alterations, fibrosis, peliosis, and tumor size as compared to focal nodular hyperplasia observed in non-pill users. In addition, hemorrhage, necrosis, and peliosis were much more common in hepatic cell adenoma than in focal nodular hyperplasia. fn the material reported in this series there were no hepatic cell adgaoma cases observed in non-pill users. Focal nodular hyperplasia cases exhjbited qp gverwhelmingly greater degree of vascular intimal and medial alterations than hepatic cell adenoma. The results suggest that the effects of oral esntraceptives on the liver may be primarily upon the vasculature.

This study evaluates the data of noninvasive (in situ) lobular (ISLC) and ductal (ISDC) carcinoma, collected from 498 hospitals in a National Breast Cancer Survey, carried out by the American College of Surgeons in 1978. ISLC and ISDC were identified in 323 (3.2%) of 10,054 female patients with lobular and ductal carcinoma, of the total of 23,972 patients with histologically proven breast cancer surveyed (1.4%). The frequency of ISLC was significantly higher (18.5%) than ISDC (2.1%) suggesting a less agressive nature of ISLC, with a slower progression to invasion than ISDC. There was a different age distribution of ISLC and ISDC: about 80% of ISLC and 50% of ISDC were diagnosed in patients who were less than 54 years old, and the incidence showed a marked decrease in the older age groups in ISLC, whereas the incidence remained high in the following decade in ISDC. In this series there was a distinctly better five-year cure rate in the patients with ISLC (83.5%) than in the patients with ISDC (68.8%), in spite of the fact that radical surgery was performed more frequently in ISDC (67.8%) than ISLC (36.3%). The recurrence rate was five times higher (10.5%) in ISDC than in ISLC (2.5%). In black patients the recurrence rate (21.3%) was significantly higher in ISDC than in white patients (9.3%). In the present study there were no statistically significant differences in the five-year cure and recurrence rate in patients with noninvasive carcinoma, treated by more conservative procedures (72.9% and 8.5%) and those treated by more extensive surgeries (76.2% and 7.7%). The results of this study suggests that the biologic behavior of ISLC and ISDC may be different with regard to their propensity to invade and their overall prognosis. In contrast, the infiltrative form of lobular and ductal carcinoma, were found to have the same prognosis, regardless of the type of operative procedure performed.

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