The Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

The Spectrum of Breast Diseases in Saudi Arab Females: A 26 Year Pathological Survey at Dhahran Health Center

“…Fibroadenomas are the most frequent lesions encountered, constituting 30.7% of all cases and 75% of all benign tumors. This is higher than the reported frequency in England (7.7%), 2 the USA (18.5%), 3 and Jordan (21% ). 21 but is slightly lower than American blacks (34.7%), 30 Africans, 31,32 and the Caribbean islands of Trinidad (39.3%) 7 and Jamaica (32.4%).…”

“…Intraductal papillomas in this series (2.6%) are less common than has been reported in a series from New York (3.5%) 3 and another on breast lesions in blacks (5.7%). 30 This could be partially due to the exclusion of cases of papillomatosis associated with other lesions such as fibrocystic change and juvenile papillomatosis.…”

“…21 A relatively high frequency of breast carcinoma was discovered among female relatives of patients affected with this condition, 49,50 a fact which calls for careful clinical surveillance of both the patients and their female relatives. 50 Acute mastitis and breast abscesses in the present study are more frequent than reported in other series; 3,7,33 however, we believe the figures for breast abscesses are underestimated because most are drained and only a minority are biopsied. The figures for mastitis in the present study are close to those reported from Jordan.…”

“…This lesion is the most common breast mass in studies from the UK (37%) 2 and the USA (33.9%). 3 In the past, several terms such as mammary dysplasia, cystic mastitis and fibrocystic disease were used to describe the pathologic spectrum of apparently related clinical abnormalities of the breast. Now there is a consensus to use the term fibrocystic condition or change as the preferred diagnostic term, the degree of risk of development of malignancy stated according to the presence or absence of various microscopic elements.…”

“…In addition, carcinoma of the breast ranks first among malignant tumors affecting females in many parts of the world, including Saudi Arabia. 1 Wide variations in the spectrum of breast diseases and the epidemiology of mammary carcinoma in various countries [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] or ethnic groups [10][11][12] have been reported. In the Arab world, most of the studies on pathological conditions of the breast are related to its malignancies.…”