RESUMO
A very pronounced and significant difference in albumen concentration is seen in 337 breast cancer tissues compared with 94 histologically benign breast tissues. In cancer of the breast the mean albumen concentration is 8.4 mg/g tissue, whereas benign breast tissues show in 94% of the cases an albumen concentration of over 10 mg/g tissue, mean 16.4 mg/g. In breast cancer, 72% of the tissues have an albumen concentration up to 10 mg/g (cancers of low albumen content), whereas in 28% the albumen concentration lies over 10 mg/g (cancers of high albumen content). On analysing the axillary lymph node involvement in the two groups: low albumen and high albumen concentration, we find significantly more axillary metastases in the low-albumen than in the high-albumen cancer group. The difference is most pronounced when more then 3 lymph nodes are involved. This high lymph node involvement is found twice as often in the low-albumen than in the high-albumen group. It can be concluded that low-albumen breast cancers show a noticeably higher tendency to axillary lymph node metastases than do high-albumen cancers.
