title: Comparison between incidental malignant and benign breast lesions detected by computed tomography: a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  With increasing use of CT for a variety of diagnostic pathways, breast incidentalomas will be identified more frequently. Therefore, it is important for radiologists to know typical CT appearances of malignant and benign breast lesions. The aim of this study was to compare radiological features of benign and malignant incidental breast findings on CT reported in the literature.
  
  
  METHODS
  A search for appropriate studies published between 1988 and 2012 yielded five results with a total of 214 patients/257 lesions. Morphological features of the described breast masses, such as shape, margins, enhancement, axillary lymphadenopathy and calcifications, were analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of incidental breast carcinoma varied from 9.2% to 60.9% of the lesions. The frequency of benign lesions was 30.4-71.8%. The remaining incidental findings were intramammary metastases and primary or secondary breast lymphomas. Malignant lesions were larger in size, were round in shape and demonstrated a higher density compared with benign lesions. There was no significant difference in the margin characteristics of the masses between the groups. The morphological features previously postulated as typical for malignancy turned out to be non-specific.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Benign and malign breast incidentalomas are not safely distinguished from each other on standard chest CT. Therefore, all breast incidentalomas should be evaluated by further radiological/histological investigations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Halle, Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas Gunter
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Bach
authors.forename: Jasmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Abbas
authors.forename: Cholpan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jasaabuu
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schramm
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wienke
authors.forename: Alexey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Surov
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015984:Causality; D015897:Comorbidity; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008297:Male; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: breast; computed tomography; incidental finding