Nonneoplastic breast calcifications in lipid cysts: development after excision and primary irradiation

Calcified lipid-filled cysts were observed in mammograms of three patients after limited surgery and primary therapeutic radiation for mammary carcinoma. One patient underwent biopsy which revealed fat necrosis. The mammographic images in the other cases are also consistent with previous descriptions of posttraumatic fat necrosis which had been seen after direct trauma and surgery. This mammographic finding does not represent carcinoma and is not an indication for biopsy.