Profile of Benign Breast Diseases in an African Population

Abstract

Benign Breast Diseases (BBD) refer to all non-malignant conditions of the breast and it received little attention in the past because most of the focus was on breast cancer, despite the fact that it constitutes majority of the presentation in breast clinics. The objective of this study was to evaluate comprehensively the profile of BBD in our environment, highlight the age group distribution of these BBDs and its different modes of presentation. This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted between May 2009 and April 2010 at the Taimako Breast and Cervical Screening Centre on women who presented for breast screening. There were two thousand and sixty five study subjects, out of which one hundred and fifty women were diagnosed with BBD (7.3%), while one thousand nine hundred and fifteen (92.7%) had normal screening results. The mean age of those with BBD was 27.9 ± 9.6 with an age range of 15 to 60 years. Breast lumps constituted 44.7% of the presentation of BBD and was the most common mode of presentation, while 17.3% of those diagnosed with BBD had no symptoms and were discovered following triple assessment. More than half (56.8%) of the women who complained of breast lumps did not actually have lumps following triple assessment. BBD comprised a spectrum of disorders, with Fibroadenoma being the commonest and occurred most frequently in the younger 2nd and 3rd decades as opposed to older decades.