Histopathologic findings in breast reduction specimens

Reduction mammaplasty is a commonly performed operation for treatment of breast hypertrophy. It allows examination of specimens from a seemingly healthy population. Although there are many publications reporting the incidence of occult breast carcinomas, only a few studies have specifically examined the incidence of other breast lesions in reduction mammaplasty specimens. The authors conducted a single-centre retrospective chart review examining the incidence of benign and precancerous lesions in breast reduction specimens. Both age and the number of tissue sections were evaluated for the association with important pathologic findings. Of the 95 patients who underwent reduction mammaplasty, eight patients (8.4%) had atypical lesions. Fourteen patients (15%) had proliferative and 54 patients (57%) had non-proliferative breast lesions. No occult invasive breast cancer was identified in the breast reduction specimens. The existence of significant pathologic findings was not associated with age (p = 0.231, student t-test). On the other hand, it was found to be associated with the number of tissue sections (p = 0.046, Mann-Whitney U-test). This study reveals that breast reduction specimens should be analyzed histologically since a considerable amount of patients have breast lesions with increased cancer risk. Therefore, this analysis would guide the management of these patients in the follow-up period.