BACKGROUNDBenign breast diseases (BBD) constitute a heterogeneous group of disorders including developmental abnormality, epithelial and stromal proliferation, inflammatory lesions and neoplasm. As compared to breast cancers, benign breast lesions are 10 times more common. Benign breast lesions deserve attention because of their high prevalence, their impact on women's life and due to cancerous potential of some histological types.
MATERIALS AND METHODS120 cases were diagnosed as BBD after triple assessments like clinical examination, ultrasonography or mammography, FNAC or excisional biopsy. Patients with obvious malignancy were excluded from the study.
RESULTSOut of 120 benign lesions, the commonest presentation was breast lump (60%) commonly involving left upper outer quadrant. Fibroadenoma accounted for 39.2%, fibroadenosis 31%, mastalgia 13.3%, breast abscess about 7.5% and gynaecomastia 7.5%. The other benign lesions observed were phyllodes, cysts, lipoma, galactocele, mastitis, duct ectasia and accessory breast. In case of fibroadenoma, accuracy of clinical diagnosis vs radiology and pathology was found to be 91% and 94% respectively, and 100% for galactocele and breast abscess.
CONCLUSIONBBDs are common in females and fibroadenoma is the commonest in all. Triple assessment provided a quick diagnosis and it alleviated unnecessary anxiety for the patients about breast cancer. The clinical diagnosis of the breast lump as confirmed by radiology and pathology was accurate in 91% and 94% of cases respectively.