Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology Study of Male Breast Lesions: A Six Year Study

Background: Male breast lesions are comparatively less common. Gynaecomastia is the most common clinical and pathological abnormality of the male breast. Carcinoma of the male breast is much rarer than its equivalent female tumour. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is widely used method in the management of breast lesions in women. However, FNAC is used much less often in male, mainly because male breast masses are less frequent. But it is one of the most reliable tools for diagnosis of male breast lesions. Aims and objectives: To describe cytomorphological pattern and to determine the efficacy of FNAC in the diagnosis of male breast lesions. Materials and methods: A six year retrospective cross sectional study of male breast lesions was conducted by FNAC. Results and observations: A total of 111 cases of male breast lesions were subjected to FNAC. Among these, 107 cases (96.40%) had benign diagnosis. Only 1 case (0.9%) had malignant diagnosis. In 3 cases (2.7%), smears were inconclusive. Among benign cases, gynaecomastia (90 cases, 81.08%) was the most common lesion, followed by fibroadenoma (8 cases, 7.21%), acute suppurative lesion (4 cases, 3.6%) and others (5 cases, 4.5%). Age of the patient ranged from 7 years to 85 years with mean age of 42.39 years. Most of patients had unilateral lesion (102 cases, 91.89%). Conclusion: Gynaecomastia is the most prevalent male breast disorder. FNAC of male breast lesions is very accurate tool. Therefore, it should be used as initial diagnostic procedure of male breast lesions.