Mammographic assessment of human breast cancer growth and duration

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Abstract
Accumulating data from numerous sources have confirmed that breast cancers have highly variable rates of growth. Contemporary thought supports that collectively the gross rates should decelerate with increasing tumor mass. Using composite data derived from mammographically measured growth of breast cancers observed at the Universities of Heidelberg and Louisville, the growth curve providing the best fit to the observed data, and the variance occurring around this curve has been calculated. A generalized logistic equation provided the best fit, with a natural variance ranging from extremely rapidly growing to slowly growing cancer. These data do not cover the entire range of growth rates because cancers appearing acutely between mammograms were observed only once, and some breast cancers never grew. The highly variable decelerating growth rates of breast cancers are better but incompletely defined, and these rates are of value in considering screening strategies and prognosis.