Spectrum of Breast Diseases Following a Population Based Breast Cancer Survey

Breast diseases constitute a wide spectrum of disorders and the pattern varies across countries and ethnic groups. A diagnosis of breast cancer is usually associated with anxiety among women, with the result that those who actually have it, present late leading to increased adverse outcome. Most studies on breast disease spectrum in our environment are hospital based. We therefore sought to establish the true pattern of breast diseases from our community based survey. This was a cross sectional prospective study of all women who presented for breast cancer screening between May 2009 and April 2010 at the Taimako Breast and Cervical Screening Centre, Lafia. All lumps discovered were subjected to biopsy and specimens were obtained either by needle core or following lumpectomy. All data was entered into a questionnaire and analysed using Epi info 3:5:1 software. There were two thousand and eighty five subjects who presented for screening over the period. All were females. The mean age was 34 + 12 years with an age range of 12 to 90 years. 1900 had normal breast screening while abnormalities were detected in 185 (8.9%). Of the abnormal findings, 156 (84.3%) were benign while 29 (15.7%) were malignant. Fibroadenoma was the most frequent diagnosis in 33 (17.8%) subjects. The mean age of those with fibroadenoma was 24.6 + 7.1 years, that of patients with breast cancer was 47.1 + 16.4 years while that of paitents with mastitis was 28.4 + 7.9 years. Majority of subjects who presented for screening did not have any breast disease. Of those with breast diseases, majority were benign, with fibroadenoma being the most common breast disease even though breast diseases encompassed a wide spectrum of disorders.