Incidence of perilobular hemangioma in the female breast

The perilobular hemangioma is generally considered uncommon. We found a high incidence (11%) of this little-recognized benign mammary lesion during the course of a recently completed autopsy study designed to assess bilateral, four-quadrant, and subareolar disease of the breast in 210 consecutive forensic post-mortem examinations on female subjects between 15 and 97 years of age. Despite the lesion's name, its distribution was found to involve any of the stromal components of the breast. The unexpected frequency of the perilobular hemangioma within breasts in this study and the reported rarity of mammary angiosarcomas indicate that malignant transformation, if it occurs, must be rare.