The Incidence of Adjacent Synchronous Ipsilateral Infiltrating Carcinoma and/or DCIS in Patients Diagnosed With Intraductal Papilloma Without Atypia or Flat Epithelial Atypia by Core Needle Biopsy

Breast milk is made in lobules and is carried through the ducts toward the nipple. Normal ducts are lined by one layer of cells very similar to each other in appearance. Flat epithelia atypia (FEA) and intraductal papilloma without atypia (IPWA) are changes seen within the milk ducts. In the recent years these lesions have been seen more often, seemingly because more core needle biopsies are being done with the help of a mammogram, ultrasound or breast MRI. The reason for this is there is new technology available which is able to do such biopsies. A core needle biopsy uses a hollow needle to remove samples of tissue from the breast. This is an accurate method that does not involve surgery. FEA and IPWA are not very common and there are few research studies addressing them. Women found to have FEA or IPWA on core biopsy results may receive conflicting recommendations about how to precede next. It is unclear if more tissue should be removed from the biopsy site to ensure that there is no cancer nearby. The purpose of this study is to find out how often cancer is identified by excisional biopsy near an initial core biopsy where FEA or IPWA has previously been seen. Depending on these findings doctors will be better able to advise their patients as to whether they need to have a surgical biopsy, when FEA or IPWA are seen on needle biopsy, to rule out the presence of breast cancer.