Microbial Findings in Cancers of the Breast and in Their Metastases to the Skin

In four cases of carcinoma of the breast, variably acid-fast coccoid forms were found in sections from their metastases to the skin and in one of these cases in sections of the primary carcinoma. In this one case, similar-appearing corcoid forms were observed within the sections of the primary malignancy. In this same case, Staphylococcus epidermidis was cultured and studied at once and as it aged for development of forms comparable to those found in the microscopic sections of the neoplastic process. The implications of the findings for etiology of carcinoma of the breast are discussed.