Prevalence of Malignant Breast Lesions in Patients Presenting with Palpable Lumps
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37762/jgmds.13-2.830Keywords:
Breast Lump, Malignancy, Histopathology, Prevalence, Invasive Ductal CarcinomaAbstract
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to estimate the histopathology-confirmed malignancy rate among women presenting with palpable breast lumps and to describe the clinicopathological profile.
METHODOLOGY
The cross-sectional study was conducted from February 23, 2025, to August 23, 2025, in the Surgical Unit of Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, and enrolled 163 female patients with palpable breast lumps. Each of the women had clinical evaluations, then subsequently underwent either core needle biopsy or excisional or incisional biopsy. Their histopathological diagnosis was done after the biopsy. Demographic characteristics of women, the various tumor characteristics, and each tumor's histopathology were analyzed.
RESULTS
The patient's mean age was 38.7 ± 11.4 years. Of the total number of patients, 46 (28.2%) cases were confirmed malignant on pathology; 117 (71.8%) cases were benign. The majority of malignant cases (82.6%) were invasive ductal carcinoma. Meanwhile, the most commonly diagnosed benign lumps were fibroadenomas (35.6%). It was also noted that the malignancy risk increased with age. It was 7.7% in patients aged less than 30 years, 26.2% in patients aged 31-50, and 48.7% among patients older than 50 years.
CONCLUSION
In this cohort, approximately one-third of the palpable breast lumps were malignant, and there was a predominance of invasive ductal carcinoma. Higher malignancy risks were noted among older women and with larger tumor sizes. In high-burden, resource-limited settings, there is a critical need for prompt biopsy and pathological evaluation of all palpable breast lumps to improve the timeliness and prognosis for optimal care.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Qureshi SH, Abro S, Hameed F, Bashir J, Haider SA. Malignancy in females presenting to a surgical OPD with breast lumps in our population. Pak J Med Health Sci. 2021;15(3):882-887
Klein KA, Kocher M, Lourenco AP, Niell BL, Bennett DL, Chetlen A, et al. ACR Appropriateness Criteria® palpable breast masses: 2022 update. J Am Coll Radiol. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2023.02.013. PMID: 37024174 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2023.02.013
Ahmed F, Safder A, Shams-ul-Hassan S, Chaudhry SU, Sabir M, Akhtar N. Frequency of carcinoma breast in palpable breast lumps in females above 30 years of age in South Punjab. Prof Med J. 2022;29(12):1821-1825. https://doi.org/10.29309/TPMJ/2022.29.12.6033 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29309/TPMJ/2022.29.12.6033
Gauhar TM, Mahmud T, Khanum R, Khan SU, Ahmed W, Jutt N. Breast lump patterns across different age groups among female patients presenting to surgical outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in District Malir Karachi. Pak J Health Sci. 2025;6(3):78-84. https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v6i3.2797 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v6i3.2797
Vadakekut ES, Puckett Y. New palpable breast mass. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 [updated 2025 January 22; cited 2026 March 2]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560757/PMID: 32809443
Latif S, Perveen S, Iqbal M, Ahmed T, Bux KM, Soomro JA. Diagnostic accuracy of mammography for breast cancer diagnosis, taking histopathology as standard investigation. Pak Armed Forces Med J. 2021;74(Suppl 2):S157-S161.https://doi.org/10.51253/pafmj.v74iSUPPL2.7157
Khattak MS, Ahmad F, Rehman KU. Role of fine needle aspiration cytology in diagnosis of palpable breast lesions and their comparison with histopathology. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. 2020;32(1):83-86.PMID: 32468710
Malik A, Islam N, Abeer, Asif M, Shaukat I, Iqbal M. Comparison between histopathology and fine needle aspiration cytology in the case of breast lumps. Pak J Med Dent. 2025;14(4).https://doi.org/10.36283/ziun-pjmd14-4/027 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36283/ziun-pjmd14-4/027
Abbasi F, Zia MK, Usmani MS, Majeed S, Tahseen H, Khan IA. Frequency of clinically palpable breast lumps in an urban medical centre: Importance of a surgeon-run breast clinic. Pak J Med Health Sci. 2023;17(2):414-416 DOI: https://doi.org/10.53350/pjmhs2023172414
Shafiq M, Akhter A, Shamshad L, Ahmed N, Saleem S, Shahid R, et al. Diagnostic accuracy of mammography versus ultrasound in prediction of malignancy with palpable breast lesion. Pak J Med Dent. 2022;11(3):11-16.https://doi.org/10.36283/PJMD11-3/003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36283/PJMD11-3/003
Khan R, Ahmad R, Yusuf M, Hussain M, Saeed Z, Amin F. Incidence of benign and malignant breast lesions in a tertiary hospital over five years. J Pharm Res Int. 2021;34:1-7
Shah M, Hadi A, Iftikhar M, Khan I, Zeb M, Khan SA. Evaluation of benign breast diseases. Prof Med J. 2023;30(4):432-436. https://doi.org/10.29309/TPMJ/2023.30.04.7391 DOI: https://doi.org/10.29309/TPMJ/2023.30.04.7391
Ibrahim EH, Ali TA, Sharbatti S, Ismail MK, Bylappa SK, et al. Histopathological profile of different breast lesions: A single-center observational study. Cureus. 2024;16(5):e60408. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.60408 PMID: 38840633; PMCID: PMC11156016 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.60408
Ibrahim EH, Ismail AM, Salman HA, Ghonaim MM. Histopathological profile of different breast lesions: An Egyptian tertiary care center study. Int J Surg Pathol. 2024;32(1):1-7. https://doi.org/10.1177/10668969231198741.
Afrin T, Khanam H, Talukder A. Histomorphological patterns of different breast lesions in a tertiary care hospital. J Histopathol Cytopathol. 2023;7(2):63-67
Sindhu S, Katiar IR, Khatoon S, Shah SA, Dev K, Katiar SH. Frequency of malignancy in clinically benign breast lump. Biol Clin Sci Res J. 2025;6(6):16-19. https://doi.org/10.54112/bcsrj.v6i6.1799 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54112/bcsrj.v6i6.1799
Qaisrani AR, Khan MA, Farooq S, Sultan Z. Evaluation of palpable breast lump by fine needle aspiration cytology. Pak J Physiol. 2025;21(2):45-47. https://doi.org/10.69656/pjp.v21i2.1739 DOI: https://doi.org/10.69656/pjp.v21i2.1739
Mukhtar R, Hasan I, Qureshi H, Hashmi FK. Prevalence of different breast lesions in women of southern region: A retrospective analysis. Egypt J Radiol Nucl Med. 2021;52:167.https://doi.org/10.1186/s43055-021-00633-8 PMID: 34230821 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s43055-021-00633-8
Tan E, Arachchi A, Cheng M, Lockie D. Indeterminate (B3) breast lesions and the ongoing role of diagnostic open biopsy. Int J Breast Cancer. 2021;2021:5555458. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5555458 PMID: 33604018; PMCID: PMC7874415 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5555458
Jangid P, Jangid MK, Pachori G. A histopathological study of malignant lesions of the female breast in a tertiary care centre. J Evol Med Dent Sci. 2020;9(24):1795-1799. https://doi.org/10.14260/jemds/2020/392 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14260/jemds/2020/392
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Rafia Ahmad, Muhammad Shah, Shimee Shahzadi, Shehzad Akbar Khan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
