BENIGN BIOPSIES IN THE PREVALENT ROUND OF BREAST SCREENING - A REVIEWOF 137 CASES

In the first round of the National Health Service Breast Screening Pro gramme, 35 533 women attended for screening at the two breast screenin g units served by St Bartholomew's Hospital, Further assessment was ne cessary in 2212 women (6.2%), of whom 412 (1%) subsequently underwent surgical biopsy, Of these 137 had benign lesions, The predominant mamm ographic abnormality leading to biopsy was microcalcification in 55, a mass in 48, parenchymal asymmetry in 18 and architectural distortion in 16. Histology revealed fibrocystic change in 66, fibroadenoma in 27 , radial scar/complex sclerosing lesion in 23, atypical ductal hyperpl asia only in eight, and a variety of unusual benign lesions in 13. In an attempt to determine criteria which would minimize unnecessary biop sy of benign lesions in future, the mammographic and cytological featu res of these benign lesions were reviewed and compared with the final histology, The most common diagnostic problems were clustered and vari able microcalcification, the radial scar/complex sclerosing lesion, an d mammographic features shown to be atypical hyperplasia on histology.