INTRODUCTION
Fifty years have passed since Reclus published his classic description of cystic disease of the breast. Since that time much investigative work has been done, and a voluminous literature has developed. However, the practical and important relationship between this disease and carcinoma has never been so decisively established that any one view has been generally accepted. As a result, a wide range of opinion still prevails as to what constitutes its proper treatment. Thus the selection of the surgeon, rather than the nature of the lesion, often determines whether a breast is removed or preserved.
I believe that sufficient evidence is available to justify a more uniform view of this relationship and to evolve a more standardized and conservative policy in the treatment of the disease.
It is proposed to review the literature, to evaluate the information contained in it, to add, together with follow-up information, a series of
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