ABSTRACT
La situación actual de alta epidemiología del cáncer de mama y de toda la patología mamaria y los problemas relacionados con el seno obligan a un nuevo enfoque que es el que defiende la senología: atención global e interdisciplinaria. Hemos intentado repasar en este número monográfico el estado actual del problema, haciendo hincapié en la necesidad de formación y participación de la asistencia primaria en el gran proyecto de la senología. A partir de aquí, es necesario que la política asistencial comprenda el problema y ponga en marcha los medios que hagan posible lo que, cada vez más, se plantea como una necesidad (AU)
Subject(s)
Female , Humans , Primary Health Care , Breast/physiology , Breast Diseases , Breast Diseases/diagnosis , Breast Diseases/prevention & control , Breast Diseases/therapy , Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis , Breast Neoplasms/prevention & control , Breast Neoplasms/therapyABSTRACT
Expert physicians from many European and Latin American countries are engaged in a systematic effort to persuade influential colleagues and government officials to recognize senology as a well-defined scientific discipline and establish it as an independent specialty. The task is complex, as the establishment of a new specialty always is. Senology is not a superfluous specialty; it is similar in characteristics and indications to many other single organ-targeted specialties such as cardiology, hematology, nephrology, neurology, and others. The quest for its recognition may be a long effort that will require vigor, intelligence, firmness, persistence, and the establishment of a dialogue between interested physicians and government representatives, leaving personal interests aside. To take the care of patients with breast diseases to its optimal stage, it will be imperative to create specialized breast centers governed by principles of unity of place and action. Gathering under the same roof all specialists skilled and interested in the diagnosis and management of benign and malignant diseases of the breast and all the diagnostic and therapeutic equipment to deliver care to these patients will bring us much closer to our goal.
ABSTRACT
The authors investigated the crystallographic patterns of calcifications in breast tissue from 31 patients, including eight calcified benign lesions, 17 calcified carcinomas, and six noncalcified control samples. Scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray analysis, and x-ray diffraction with the Guinier camera were employed and yielded information on the shape and composition of breast calcifications. Polyhedral crystals (with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis response to calcium) contained calcite, aragonite, or calcium oxalate, depending on the case. Calcium oxalate crystals were found only in malignant breast tissues. Spherical crystals (with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis response to calcium and phosphorus) contained apatite. Spherical crystals predominated in malignant processes, but all shapes and compositions were present in both benign and malignant processes. The relationship of the calcification to its surrounding tissue may account for differences in structure, but results are inconclusive and require further study.
