Prevalence of Imaging Detected Silent Female Breast Cancer in Autopsy Specimens: Study of the Disease Held by Image-Guided Biopsies

Breast cancer epidemiological patterns vary in European countries, presenting different incidence rates (49-148 new cases per 100,000 women) with a narrow but still variable range of mortality (15-36 new cases per 100,000 women). In Portugal, female breast cancer incidence is increasing while mortality is gradually decreasing, with 118.5 and 30.4 cases per 100,000 women, respectively. The reduction in breast cancer mortality is not only due to the early detection of the disease but is, in almost equal parts, the result of both the advances in screening and molecular medicine and the development of new therapies. This study aimed to quantify the imaging detected actual number of breast cancer present in female gender by determining the prevalence of silent breast cancer in corpses. We quantified the imaging-identified cancers that were not clinically manifested, with the hypothesis that the imaging detected natural reservoir of silent breast cancer is greater than the actual incidence of the disease, a hypothesis that was not confirmed.