[Reliability of cytologic puncture. Who should perform the puncture of breast tumors?]. / Fiabilité de la ponction cytologique. Qui doit ponctionner les tumeurs du sein?

In a period of 18 months, 187 cytology aspiration biopsies of the breast were performed at the Centre François Baclesse by clinicians and radiologists, using the conventional technique. Comparison of the results with clinical, radiological and histological findings by different specialists showed that one out of two aspiration biopsies gave an erroneous diagnosis. The authors believe that this failure was due to the fact that the biopsies were not performed by a cytologist. This prime condition of success should be more clearly expressed in the literature.

Sex of first child as a prognostic factor in breast cancer.

The sex of the first child of patients who underwent mastectomy for potentially curable breast cancer appeared to be a valuable prognostic factor: patients whose first child was a boy had a better outcome than those whose first child was a girl. The difference was statistically significant. This may have been because the male/female sex ratio among first children was significantly higher in those patients without node involvement than in those with node involvement. But the favourable effect of a male first birth was still seen when only patients with an equal degree of node involvement (greater than or equal to 4 nodes) were studied. The "protection" resulting from a male first-born could be the result of fetal testicular secretions. This protection did not apply to the risk of breast cancer--the male/female sex ratio of first children in our series was 1.08, a figure not statistically different from that of the overall French population (1.05).