Hemangioma of the Breast: Clinical, Mammographic, and Ultrasound Features

Sinusoidal hemangioma of the breast: diagnostic evaluation management and literature review

“…Only two of these lesions originated in the breast. Histologically, breast hemangiomas are characterized by the presence of interconnecting dilated thin-walled vascular channels lined by flat endothelial cells, in the absence of atypia (1,3,10). Depending on the size of the vessels involved breast hemangiomas can be classified into capillary and cavernous types (1,11).…”

“…There are no imaging modalities that can reliably differentiate between vascular benign tumors and angiosarcomas (3,7,14).…”

“…Mammography may have additional limitations, especially in young patients, due to the dense parenchymal pattern (2). The mass may rarely contain microcalcifications (1,3,5,6) of fine, punctuate or phlebolith pattern (3). The presence of microcalcifications on both mammogram and ultrasonography is a factor that may suggest a malignant process (9).…”

“…It most commonly appears as a superficially located oval mass with parallel orientation and circumscribed margins. Internal echostructure is variable and the tumor can be hypoechoic, isoechoic or hyperechoic (1,(3)(4)(5)11). Compressibility of the tumor may be detected only in the absence of thrombosis (7).…”

“…Hemangioma of the breast is a rare benign vascular tumor accounting for 0.4% of all breast tumors (2). It is found in approximately 1.2% of mastectomy specimens and in 11% of postmortem specimens in females (3,4). In a retrospective review of 10,000 breast biopsies performed within a 10-year period, Glazebrook et al (5) found only 18 cases of benign vascular tumors.…”