Cytopathologic diagnosis of spontaneous infarction of fibroadenoma of the breast

Abstract

Infarction is an uncommon event in a fibroadenoma, which is the commonest benign tumor of the breast. Most often it occurs in pregnancy, lactation or is secondary to fine needle aspiration. Spontaneous infarction of a fibroadenoma in the absence of a predisposing condition is very rare. The cytopathologic features of infarction are necrosis and worrisome nuclear features, which are often misinterpreted as either inflammation or malignancy. We detail a report of accurate cytopathologic diagnosis of spontaneous infarction of fibroadenoma in a 17-year-old adolescent non pregnant girl. Careful attention to the cytopathologic clues like uniform thickness of the necrotic epithelial fragments, branching pattern reminiscent of the staghorn pattern despite atypical nuclear features and clinical details like young age of the patient and recent onset pain in a pre-existing lump helped arrive at the correct diagnosis and spared the patient of a radical excision. To the best of our knowledge, there are no earlier reports of correct cytopathologic diagnosis.