Breast Surgery Disease: Diabetic Mastopathy

• Benign disorder being developed in type 2 diabetic patient.
• Important to convey “diabetes” at medical inspection.
• Watch and wait is the basics. When resect, reappearance may be expected

Benign disorder being developed in type 2 diabetic patient.

This is a pathological condition which can be seen on diabetic patients. Most of the case, patients visit hospital with worrying about breast cancer upon noticed of painless tumor. This is relatively rare disease but, in Japan, it is said that the disease is common among type 2 diabetic patients among the middle-aged female. Histologically speaking, the disease is the benign disorder categorized in breast fibrosis. This disease patient age is overlapped with peak onset age of breast cancer, so that it is necessary not to self-diagnose and to have thorough medical check at hospital.

Important to convey “diabetes” at medical inspection.

As for the cause of this disease, report says that administration of insulin for longer period or autoimmunization may involve with the disease, but it is still vague in overall. At mammography or echography, the disease sometime indicates similar results with breast cancer, so that it is reported that the contrast-enhanced MRI or contrast-enhanced CT examination is useful for differential diagnosis. The most important thing is to inform medical specialist that he/she is receiving treatment for diabetes. Definite diagnosis is possible by pathological examination, such as needle biopsy or resected biopsy.

Watch and wait is the basics. When resect, reappearance may be expected

When definite diagnosis is made, it is recommended to conduct watch and wait basically. In case when surgical resect is made, it is said that recurrence of the disease is common.

Reference

A Case of Diabetic Mastopathy Requiring Diagnosis from Breast Cancer, Takayama et.al., The Journal of Japanese College of Surgeons, 36(2):136 – 140, 2011