Fibroadenoma in women in Ghana

Abstract

BACKGROUND Fibroadenoma is the commonest benign tumor of female breast. It is particularly common in young women in Africa. METHOD This paper describes the clinicopathologic features of fibroadenoma of breast in African women from central Ghana and compares them to the data from African-American women. RESULTS Fibroadenomas constituted 47.7% of all palpable breast masses. The median age of women was 22 years (range 14-49). Almost a third of the cases occurred in teenager. The mean size of masses was 3.8 cm (range 1-9 cm), with 22.5% showing larger sizes. A total of 16.1% had multiple and/or bilateral lesions. CONCLUSION Women from Central Ghana tend to have proportionately more fibroadenomas and larger (>5 cm) variants compared to published data from African-American women, however, the average age, size, multifocality and bilaterality do not differ significantly between these two groups of women.