title: Cytopathologic diagnosis of spontaneous infarction of fibroadenoma of the breast.
abstract: Infarction is an uncommon event in a fibroadenoma, which is the commonest benign tumor of the breast. Most often it occurs in pregnancy, lactation or is secondary to fine needle aspiration. Spontaneous infarction of a fibroadenoma in the absence of a predisposing condition is very rare. The cytopathologic features of infarction are necrosis and worrisome nuclear features, which are often misinterpreted as either inflammation or malignancy. We detail a report of accurate cytopathologic diagnosis of spontaneous infarction of fibroadenoma in a 17-year-old adolescent non pregnant girl. Careful attention to the cytopathologic clues like uniform thickness of the necrotic epithelial fragments, branching pattern reminiscent of the staghorn pattern despite atypical nuclear features and clinical details like young age of the patient and recent onset pain in a pre-existing lump helped arrive at the correct diagnosis and spared the patient of a radical excision. To the best of our knowledge, there are no earlier reports of correct cytopathologic diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University College of Medical Sciences, University of DELHI, INDIA.
authors.forename: Neelam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wadhwa
authors.forename: Richa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Nidhi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mangal
authors.forename: Nirupma Panikar
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Mohit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joshi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D018226:Fibroadenoma / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007238:Infarction / Q000473:pathology*; D009336:Necrosis / Q000473:pathology