ASSESSMENT OF BREAST CANCER INCIDENCE IN PATIENTS WITH MASTALGIA AND ROUTINE SCREENING

Abstract

About 70% of the women experiences breast pain once in their life time1. Mastalgia is described as tension, discomfort, and ache in breast1. The prevalence of cancer in patients manifesting with breast pain is reported to be 0.3-2% 2. As breast cancer awareness increases, the concern that breast pain may indicate malignancy contributes to the tendency of breast pain to be the most common breast symptom and leads to a woman consulting a breast surgeon3. Breast pain is categorized broadly in to two types; cyclical and non-cyclical breast pain. Cyclical mastalgia is a unilateral or bilateral pattern of pain or tenderness, frequently associated with swelling that reduces with the menstrual cycle. Noncyclic mastalgia tends to be unilateral and is more local than cyclical breast pain. The location of the pain can usually be localized. Typically, most women who had non cyclic mastalgia are in the fourth or fifth decade of life at the time of diagnosis.