Scar and non-scar ductal cancer of the female breast. Observations on patient age, tumour size, and hormone receptors

Abstract

Ductal cancers of human female breasts were classified as scar or non-scar type. Of 274 cancers, 144 were scar and 130 non-scar type. Estrogen and progesterone receptors were determined in 191 cases; the cancer was classified as hormone receptor positive if either the estrogen or progesterone receptor level, or both, was over 10 fmol/mg of cytosol protein. The mean age of patients with scar cancer was higher than that of patients with non-scar cancer (59.8 +/- 13.5 and 49.4 +/- 12.0 years, respectively, p less than 0.001). A higher number of hormone receptor positive cases was found among the scar than among the non-scar cancers (68 of 94 and 48 of 97 cases, respectively, p less than 0.01). Within the two groups, the patient's age was not associated with hormone receptor status. Our results indicate that the generally observed tendency for postmenopausal breast cancer to be more often hormone receptor positive than premenopausal cancer may be associated with the histological type and not with the patient's age. Scar cancers were also smaller than 2 cm more frequently than non-scar cancers (p less than 0.001) and as a group, ductal cancers were smaller in postmenopausal patients than in premenopausal patients (p = 0.088). Again, this tendency seemed to be linked with the type of cancer rather than with the patient's age.