Biological, biochemical and morphological markers of breast disorders and of breast cancer.

Abstract

The present most useful markers for breast appear to be: a. Actin, myosin and cytokeratins for distinguishing benign (mixed) from malignant (single cell) proliferations. b. Psychological assessment for prediction of long term cancer survival (Pettingale, 1985). c. Helix pomatia lectin binding for distinguishing cancers that have metastasized from those that have not. This is so far limited to 3 independent retrospective studies (Leathem, 1987; Fenlon, 1987; Fukutomi, 1989) and now needs prospective confirmation.