CHRONIC cystic mastitis has been known as a clinical and pathologic entity for more than one hundred years (Sir Ashley Cooper, 1831). However, the surgeon consulting the literature is confronted with a multitude of conflicting opinions on the nature of this disease and with contradictory advice as to the proper treatment.
The opinion of Klose and Sebening,1 Semb,2 Ewing,3 Crile and Graham4 and Cheatle and Cutler5 that chronic cystic mastitis is a precancerous lesion and that mastectomy is indicated is opposed by authorities like Bloodgood,6 Campbell,7 Lewis and Geschickter,8 Bell and others, who have stated the belief that patients with chronic cystic mastitis are no more liable to the development of cancer of the breast than are those without it. There are still others who contend that while chronic cystic mastitis may predispose to cancer of the breast the incidence of the