Incidental Breast Cancer in Reduction Mammaplasty Specimen A Case Report

Reduction mammaplasty is increasingly used for the treatment of discomfort associated with macromastia. Breast cancer is a tumor with the highest prevalence and incidence in women. As it can be expected, reduction mammaplasty specimens occasionally reveal breast cancer. So, before reduction mammaplasty, patients should be assessed for breast cancer risk and evaluated by physical examination and mammography. We report here the discovery of breast cancer in specimens from a patient who underwent elective breast reduction. Preoperative mammography showed no evidence of malignancy. But, final pathologic evaluation of reduction specimens revealed foci of “invasive ductal carcinoma” on the left side, therefore the patient underwent modified radical mastectomy. In conclusion, thorough preoperative clinical examination and mammography may reduce the rate of incidentally discovered cancer during reduction mammaplasty procedures. Pathologic examination of RM specimens is imperative, and sending all of them for pathologist is mandatory. These recommendations emphasize breast reduction as an opportunity for detection of occult potential fatal disease in higher risk groups.