The incidence of non-proliferative and precancerous lesions of reduction mammoplasty: evaluation of 273 cases.

[BACKGROUND] Reduction mammoplasty (RM) is one of the most commonly performed plastic surgery procedures to treat symptomatic macromasty or to correct asymmetry. Occult breast carcinomas were rarely defined in RM specimens. There are few studies aiming to define the incidence of non-proliferative and precancerous lesions.

[MATERIAL AND METHODS] We evaluated the pathological findings of the RM specimens that have been submitted to our Center for the last 6 years (2005-2011).

[RESULTS] A total of 273 cases with bilateral RM were enrolled to the study. Of them, 229 cases had pathological changes. Eight cases (2.9%) had atypical ductal/lobular hyperplasia. One case (0.3%) had lobular carcinoma in situ; however, no invasive breast carcinoma was detected. Other pathological findings included fibrocystic changes, fibrosis, adenosis, fibroadenoma (without complex features), mastitis and duct ectasia.

[CONCLUSIONS] Pathological examination of the RM specimens is quite important to define the lesions precancerous of breast carcinoma. Unknown occult breast lesions could be identified and early interventions may be taken into account.