Evaluation Of Nipple Involvement In Carcinoma Breast And Correlation With Tumor Factors.

ABSTRACT

This was a hospital based descriptive study. One hundred and ninety one therapeutic mastectomy specimens were included .Age range of patients was from twenty two to eighty seven years. Twenty specimens out of one hundred and ninety one cases had grossly retracted nipples with thirteen cases (65%) showing neoplastic involvement. Nine out of the remaining one hundred and seventy one grossly unremarkable nipples (5.26%) showed occult neoplastic involvement. Overall neoplastic involvement of nipple was 11.51% (22 out of 191). Location of tumour, nipple tumour distance and lymphovascular invasion showed significant association with nipple involvement. This study indicated a low frequency of neoplastic involvement of nipple in mastectomy specimens thus favouring replacement of conventional mastectomy with nipple sparing mastectomy in selected cases. This study also proposes a unique selection criteria for nipple sparing mastectomy