Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of malign/benign lesions and complicated cysts/abscesses in diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging and to investigate the contribution of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) to differential diagnosis. Methods: In this retrospective study; histopathologically proven 177 lesions (21 complicated cysts, 91 malign and 65 bening lesions) were evaluated in 116 women using conventional MRI and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI /sec (P<0.001), respectively. The ADC values identified for complicated cysts/abscesses are significantly lower than the ADC values of benign and malign values reported in the literature. Conclusion: As a result, the specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of DWI when it is used alone are higher than conventional MRI, while sensitivity of DWI is nearly the same. DWI is effective in detecting breast lesions and also ADC value is useful in distinguishing among complicated cysts/abscesses, malignant and benign breast lesions.