Breast fibroadenoma and its clinical perspectives: a prospective observational study

Abstract

Background: To study the patterns of breast fibroadenoma in females and to co-relate them with the pathological findings.Methods: Sixty six females who attended the Surgery Department in Darbhanga Medical College, Bihar, a tertiary centre in rural area, with benign breast lump during the period Bihar during period of November 2009 to November 2011, were studied. Early diagnoses by doing a triple assessment like a clinical examination, FNAC or a core needle biopsy and imaging methods like ultrasonography or mammography. The clinical diagnoses were compared with the cytological or histological findings wherever possible and their accuracies were evaluated.Results: Out of the 66 confirmed fibroadenoma female patients who were studied, most patients presented as a painless lump which is need to be differentiated from carcinoma. Most of the patient (63%) presented within 6 months of development of breast lesion showing increasing awareness in females of rural India. The maximum number of patient presented (55%) is of 2nd to 3rd decade. It was found that maximum number of patients have upto three children due to early marriage in rural background.Conclusions: Fibroadenoma is a common cause for breast lump even in rural background. Triple assessment provided a quick diagnosis and it alleviated unnecessary anxiety from the patients about breast cancer. The clinical diagnosis of a breast lump, as confirmed by cytology and histology, was accurate in most of the cases.