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Bilateral mammary hibernoma mimicking breast carcinoma: a diagnostic challenge
  1. Royson Dsouza1,
  2. Anish Jacob Cherian2,
  3. Radha Ananthakrishnan3 and
  4. Nandakumar Menon1
  1. 1General Surgery, Gudalur Adivasi Hospital, Nilgiris, India
  2. 2Endocrine Surgery, Christian Medical College and Hospital Vellore, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  3. 3Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, G Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr Anish Jacob Cherian; anish{at}cmcvellore.ac.in

Abstract

We describe a 68-year-old postmenopausal woman who presented with a history of rapidly enlarging lumps in both breasts. Though the breast lumps appeared suspicious on ultrasonography, the core biopsy was reported to be benign. In view of the clinical and radiological suspicion of malignancy, she underwent a diagnostic excision of both the lumps, the histopathology was consistent with mammary hibernoma. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of a bilateral mammary hibernoma in an elderly postmenopausal woman. Given the clinical presentation, it is important to differentiate mammary hibernoma from carcinoma breast, which is a more common condition in this age group. However, preoperative diagnosis is challenging in view of the lack of definitive radiological and histological features. Although benign, hibernoma may have a propensity for local recurrence and, therefore, complete surgical excision remains the mainstay of treatment.

  • breast surgery
  • breast cancer

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Footnotes

  • Contributors RD: conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data. Drafting the article. Agreement to be accountable for the article and to ensure that all questions regarding the accuracy or integrity of the article are investigated and resolved. AJC, RA and NM: conception and design of the work, interpretation of data, revising it critically for important intellectual content. Final approval of the version published. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.