ABSTRACT
When assessing premalignant epithelial proliferations or a non-invasive carcinoma of the breast, it is clinically useful to estimate the probability of their progression to invasive carcinoma. Page (1) provided useful criteria in assessing non-invasive breast proliferations by calculating the relative risk of developing invasive carcinoma. The notion of risk factors enables the clinician to take into account the histologically assessed risk of subsequent malignancy, in addition to age, family history of breast cancer and reproductive history, and to plan suitable patient management (4). Screening mammography is effective in detecting non-palpable architectural abnormalities or calcifi cations. Biopsies of these lesions yield very small invasive carcinomas, carcinoma in situ, and atypical or benign epithelial proliferations. Carcinoma in situ and various epithelial proliferations are more frequently encountered nowadays than in the premammographic era. Consequently, the need to assess the risk factors for developing invasive carcinoma has never been greater in order to give patients and clinicians more information so that the most suitable treatment can be instituted. Advances in molecular pathology will also assist the clinician in making a more accurate prediction of patients at risk of developing cancer by combining genetic susceptibility and abnormal epithelial proliferations.
