A Histopathological Study of Malignant Lesions of the Female Breast in a Tertiary Care Centre.

ABSTRACT

Incidence of breast malignancy is increasing in India which can be attributed mostly to changing lifestyle and increased hormone usage, and partly to increasing awareness. We wanted to determine the prevalence of malignant breast lesions in females, evaluate the histological spectrum of malignant breast lesions and study their association with common findings like age, side, histological grade and their biological behaviour.METHODSPresent study is a two-year (August 2016 to July 2018) cross sectional study of malignant lesions of female breast, conducted in the Department of Pathology of Jawaharlal Lal Nehru Medical College, Ajmer, Rajasthan.RESULTSIn this study, 159 malignant lesions of the female breast were diagnosed during study period that comprised of 26.02% of total breast lesions and 1.22 % of the total histopathological samples received. Age of the females having malignant breast lesions ranged from 28 years to 92 years with a mean age of 52.87 ± 12.944 years. The incidence of malignant breast lesions was maximum in 5th and 4th decades of life. The most common clinical symptom for presentation was the palpable lump (79.25%) in the breast. Lesions were more common in the right breast (53.5%), than left. The commonest quadrant involved in malignant lesions of breast was upper outer (30.19%). Infiltrating ductal cell carcinoma was the most common malignant lesion (85.33%) followed by invasive lobular carcinoma (5.66%). Out of 99 specimens having lymph node with it, 65 (65.66%) cases show metastatic deposits of malignancy. Grade II (MBR score) lesions (51.35%) were found most commonly.CONCLUSIONSHistopathology of the malignant lesion is useful in understanding the morphological and biological behaviour of the malignancy as some types of malignancy have aggressive behaviour. Grading and staging have an important role in treatment plan (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy) and also in assessing the prognosis