Breast Pain, A Common Grievance: Guidance to Radiologists

OBJECTIVE. Breast pain is a common complaint among women and a frequent reason they seek health care, including imaging. However, breast pain is infrequently associated with breast cancer. This article reports and synthesizes the evidence about the risk of malignancy with breast pain, the use of imaging to evaluate breast pain, the detection of treatable symptomatic lesions by imaging, and the ability of negative examination findings to reassure patients. Evidence-based guidance for the imaging evaluation of breast pain is presented, and areas that warrant further research are described. CONCLUSION. The studies evaluating the role of imaging in breast pain are limited and conflicting. The clinician and patient should discuss the drawbacks and benefits of imaging to decide whether it is worth pursuing. If imaging is performed, ultrasound, mammography, or both should be done depending on the age of the patient. Areas worthy of further research include larger studies using modern techniques to evaluate the utility of imaging in patients with breast pain, the best way to assist clinicians in avoiding unnecessarily imaging patients with breast pain, and the utility of imaging results to reassure patients with breast pain.