No abstract

Aims: We aimed to study patients presenting to breast clinic with incidental breast lesions discovered by increasing usage of Computerized Tomography (CT) scans. Methods: A prospective study over a 3-year period, including patients with incidental breast abnormalities detected by CT scans. These patients were assessed by clinical breast examination with mammography, ultrasonography and tissue biopsy if indicated. Results: A 264% increase was observed in the total number of thoracic CT scans (1939 scans in 2005 and 5115 scans in 2010). 26 patients were included in this study with CT scans showing incidental breast lesions. Age range was 50-92 (median 82.5) years. Clinical indications of CT scans were evaluation of the abnormal chest x-ray (8, 31%), preoperative evaluation of non-breast malignancy (3, 11%), infectious diseases (3, 11%), weight loss (7, 27%) and miscellaneous (5, 20%). 13 (50%) had breast cancers, 1 (4%) had lymphoma and 12 (46%) had benign breast conditions. These 13 breast cancer patients constitute 1.36% of the total 956 breast cancers diagnosed over this three-year period. Conclusions: A significant number of breast lesions incidentally found on CT scans are shown to be breast cancers (50%). These patients need rapid access to one-stop breast clinic for full evaluation.