MALIGNANCY IN BREAST LUMPS

Abstract

Objective:(i) To assess the frequency of
malignancy in patients presenting with breast lumps. (ii)To find the age related frequency of malignancy in these cases.
Design Observational study. Setting: Department of General Surgery, Combined Military Hospital Lahore. Period:
From Jan 1998 and Jan 2000. Patients and methods: All patients presenting with breast lumps were included in the
study. All patients had FNAC of the lump. Patients with signs or suspicion of malignancy were subjected to core needle
or excisional biopsy and pathologic diagnosis confirmed. Cases proven malignant on FNAC and showing signs of
malignancy under went mastectomy, followed by histopathological diagnosis. Non-diagnostic smears were repeated
or subjected to biopsy of the lesion. Cases of suspicious smears also underwent biopsy for histopathological diagnosis.
Results: 277 patients with breast lumps managed at CMH Lahore were studied. 24.2% were diagnosed as having a
malignant lump. Mean age in the present study is 32.96yrs for benign and 51.81yrs for malignant breast lumps.
Conclusions: Frequency of breast cancer in breast lumps was 24.2% in the total cases in the study, almost one in 4
female patients coming to a surgical clinic with breast lumps can have a malignant breast lump. Breast cancer
frequency is negligible under the age of 30 yrs. The probability of diagnosing of a breast lumps as malignant is 1 in 3
in 31-40 yrs age group, 2 in 5 in 41-50 yrs age group, and more than 1 in 2 thereafter. There is a greater frequency
in younger age group in the population in our study as compared to international studies.