Diabetic sclerosing lymphocytic lobulitis of the breast

Diabetic sclerosing lymphocytic lobulitis of the breast (SLLB) as a complication of long standing diabetes is a benign disease without known tendency to malignant evolution. Clinically, it is characterized by solitary or multiple rock-hard discrete lesion(s) in one or both breasts, usually in a subareolar site, but may appear equally in any part of the breast. Mammographically and morphologically, this lesion simulates cancer. The lesion may recur after excision in the same site or in another location of the ipsilateral or the contralateral breast. Awareness of this entity, establishment of the diagnosis by open biopsy or by core needle biopsy may spare the need for repeated wide excisions and the resulting distortion of the breast architecture. The aim of this review is to arouse the awareness of the physicians and surgeons to this possibility when they find a similar lesion in the breast of a diabetic patient.