Bilateral aberrant axillary breast tissue mimicking lipomas: report of a case and review of the literature

Abstract

A 31 year old Indian woman presented with bilateral axillary masses that became noticeable with the onset of puberty. The masses exhibited similar consistency to the adjacent normal breast tissue but lacked an associated nipple complex. The clinical impression was lipoma; however, mammography, ultrasonography and skin biopsy revealed ectopic breast tissue. These findings were consistent with the diagnosis of aberrant breast tissue. A subset of ectopic mammary tissue, aberrant breast tissue may constitute a diagnostic challenge and is often misdiagnosed as lipoma, hidradenitis, follicular cyst, or lymphadenopathy. In addition, some studies have suggested that aberrant breast tissue may be at higher risk of malignant degeneration. Therefore, it's important that physicians be familiar with this condition as this may contribute to the early detection of ectopic breast cancer.

Bilateral Axillary Accessory Breast Tissue Revealed by Pregnancy

“…Misdiagnosing an accessory breast tissue is very frequent and mostly occurs when the clinical examination is poor (7,11). Polymastia is also easily confused with lipoma, sebaceous cyst, follicular cyst, lymphadenopathy or hidradenitis, while polythelia is mistaken usually for a birthmark (2,11). In our case the patient did not present any symptom before her first pregnancy when the hormonal changes started to stimulate the rudimentary breasts.…”

“…Restriction of arm movement was also reported (18). Misdiagnosing an accessory breast tissue is very frequent and mostly occurs when the clinical examination is poor (7,11). Polymastia is also easily confused with lipoma, sebaceous cyst, follicular cyst, lymphadenopathy or hidradenitis, while polythelia is mistaken usually for a birthmark (2,11).…”

“…Pathological lesions like mastitis, lipoma, fibrosis, fibroadenomas, phylodes tumors and carcinoma can also appear in accessory breasts with the same rate as in eutopic breasts, although the most frequent seems to be the carcinoma. (9,10,17) These future probable complications, along with aesthetic and psychological involvements (anxiety) are usually the reasons for surgical excision of the accessory glands (11,18). Restriction of arm movement was also reported (18).…”

“…Even if this classification was simplified afterwards, the original onestill remains the most used one (10,11). Classes I, II and III, all consist of a complete breast glandular tissue.…”

Axillary Accessory Breast Tissue Mimicking Lipoma

“…It is a rare congenital entity which occurs in 0.4-6% of women, the highest incidence occurs in the Japanese population [3,4]. It is equally found in males and females [5]. AB was classified by Kajava in 1915 [6] as follows:…”