Publication:

Evaluation of the malignancy risk in benign breast disease using screening mammography

Background Breast cancer is the most common female cancer worldwide representing nearly 25% of the population. The study was designed to find the correlation between mammographic screening and histopathology in the diagnosis of malignancy among patients breast disease.

Methods This analytical study was done on 163 patients who came to the General Surgery Out-Patient Department, VMMC, Karaikal were screened. From this, 125 patients who were clinically diagnosed with benign breast disease were further evaluated with mammography. A detailed history, clinical examination, and investigations including mammography, histopathological examination in the operated specimen were done.

Results In the study 10% lump in the central area, 20% in lower inner quadrant, 12% in lower outer quadrant, 22% in upper inner quadrant and 36% in upper outer quadrant. In the study, all the 100 subjects were diagnosed to have a benign lesion in mammogram, in hpe 87% were diagnosed to have benign lesion and 13% were diagnosed to have malignant lesions.

Conclusions Even though BI-RADS 2 and 3 mammography showed the majority of benign lesions, there is an increasing trend of malignancy in higher BI-RADS criteria, on further histopathological examination. Sensitivity, positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy are very high for mammographic screening.