Prevalence of malignancy in patients with abnormal nipple discharge assessed at the breast specialist clinic

Prevalencia de malignidad en las secreciones patológicas por pezón evaluadas en consulta de mastología

Objective: To describe the prevalence of malignancy in patients presenting with pathologic nipple discharge (ND) attending the breast specialist clinic of San José and Infantil Universitario de San José hospitals between January 2009 and January 2015.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional cohort study conducted in patients who consulted for abnormal ND or with ND found in the clinical examination. Men and lactating and pregnant women were excluded.
Results: Seventy (70) patients consulted for abnormal ND, 38.5% had discharge from the right nipple (27 breasts), 32.8% from the left nipple (23 breasts) and 28.5% had bilateral ND (40 breasts), obtaining a total of 90 affected breasts. This complaint was the reason for consultation in 98.6%. Most of the cases were found in the premenopausal women population (47.1%, 33/70). An intraductal papilloma was the cause of ND in 16.6% and the malignancy rate found in these patients was 2.8% (2/70 patients).
Conclusions: A malignant lesion must be ruled out in patients presenting with nipple discharge by performing further imaging investigations to best define medical management.

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