Clinically Occult, Mammographically Suspicious Microcalcification Clusters: Pre-, Intra-, and Postoperative Measures

Abstract

Before the era of mammography, a breast malignancy was considered to be occult only if local or distant metastases had developed, but a primary tumor could not be palpated in the breast. In the modern view, a breast carcinoma is clinically occult if it cannot be detected by ordinary clinical means - regardless of whether the lesion is still at the preclinical stage (occult early carcinoma) or has already produced metastasis or nipple eczema as in Paget’s disease (occult late carcinoma). With the increasing use of screening mammography for asymptomatic women, the problem of the localization of clinically occult suspicious findings arises more and more frequently. (Homer 1982; Letton and Mason 1980). A carcinoma may be clinically occult if:

• it is too small to be palpated

• it is relatively too small because of the large breast size or because it is located deep within the breast

• its consistency is similar to that of surrounding tissues, i. e., the healthy tissue is just as firm or firmer than the neoplastic tissue.