A surprising incidence of mammary duct ectasia in Egyptian female individuals: A 20-year experience

Abstract

The vast majority of breast pathology is benign. Much attention is given to malignant lesions because breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. Duct ectasia is one of the benign breast diseases; Haagenson was the first to use the term. It is a widening of the ducts of the breast, a condition that occurs most frequently in women in their fourth and fifth decade of life. American Cancer Society states that mammary duct ectasia does not increase the risk for developing breast cancer, as duct ectasia is considered a nonproliferative disease (cells that have changed but are not duplicate or spreading in an uncontrolled way). If left untreated, it can eventually lead to the obliteration of the breast ducts, with abscess formation. At an early stage, the ducts dilate, in which they may contain cholesterol crystals, calcification, and protein, which in turn produce an inflammatory reaction, ending by nipple discharge. In this study, and through assembling data from patients who visited our breast unit in 20 years, we found that more than 62% of patients with benign breast lesions are suffering from duct ectasia. Therefore, because of this surprising incidence, we recommend paying more attention to this disease, and the methods of diagnosis and treatment, especially the surgical one, as the operative technique is a very tedious one, as we will describe.

Keywords

• breast cancer
• duct ectasia
• nipple discharge