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According to a report from The Sun, a woman who complained of a lump in her right breast ended up suffering from diabetic mastopathy, a rare consequence of poorly controlled diabetes. Dr. Florence Coussy, gynecologist and oncologist specializing in senology, sheds light on this benign disease.
She was dreading cancer, but it was another condition lurking within her. According to information from the Journal of Medical Case Reportsreported by the Suna 64-year-old Asian woman noticed an unusual lump in her right breast.
Arriving at the hospital, she confessed that “6 months earlier, she felt a lump on her right breast and refused to agree to any further examination or treatment.”… before finally going to the hospital, worried about an evolution of this mass, which has become “harder and bigger”.
A discovered mass of 6 cm by 4 in the right breast
The mass located in her breast, reaching all the same 6 by 4 centimeters is quickly removed and analyzed. During this examination, the doctors found that this mass was not cancerous but was a diabetic mastopathy… which can cause pain, discomfort and some fright.
“Pathological examination of the mass revealed proliferation of fibroblast cells, with an increased nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio, consistent with a diagnosis of diabetic mastopathy“indicate the doctors in the report. Three months after the removal of this mass, the patient has not experienced any recurrence.
Diabetic mastopathy, a rare but benign pathology
Should we fear this pathology? We put the question to Dr. Florence Coussy, gynecologist and oncologist specialized in senology at the Institut Curie, who describes to us above all the particularities of diabetic mastopathy:
“Mastitis is by definition an inflammation of the breast, but there are different types of mastitis, benign or malignant when it is an inflammatory breast cancer. Diabetic mastopathy, also called lymphocytic mastopathy, is a rare but benign etiology. It represents less than 1% of benign breast lesions, and affects 13% of insulin-dependent diabetic women (hence its name), with diabetes that has been evolving for several years and in particular, poorly controlled diabetes.
As in the case studied, the lesion can be single, but also bilateral, painful and inflammatory.
In the case of mastopathy, the diagnosis is primarily based on imaging, but a biopsy is also necessary. “QWhatever the case, in the event of a mass, a biopsy is considered to eliminate a cancerous pathology. It is this that will make it possible to make an accurate diagnosis”.
Treatment is based on surgery. “The lesion is then completely removed to prevent a recurrence. But it is important to mention that it is not a risky lesion, there is no increased risk of breast cancer with this pathology”. The biopsy also makes it possible to differentiate diabetic mastopathy from other benign pathologies which can be treated with medicinal treatment.
Although rare, this pathology, however, makes it possible to recall a simple principle, as Dr. Coussy reminds us.
“DAs soon as we feel something in the breast, as soon as we suspect a mass, whatever it is, we consult and we plan a biopsy”.