69 Background: With increasing usage of diagnostic cross sectional radiology tests, patients are presenting to rapid access one-stop breast clinic with incidental breast lesions. Methods: A prospective study over a 3-year period, collecting details of all patients shown to have breast abnormalities detected by computed tomography (CT) scans done for various reasons. These patients were assessed by clinical breast examination coupled with mammography, ultrasonography and tissue biopsy if indicated. Results: An increasing trend has been seen in the total number of thoracic CT scans with 1,939 scans in 2005 and 5,215 scans in 2010 (169% increase). 26 patients were included in this study with CT scans showing incidental breast lesions in the last three years. They were all women with age range of 50-92 (median 82.5) years. The clinical indications of CT scans included evaluation of the abnormal chest radiograph (8, 31%), preoperative evaluation of non-breast malignancy (3, 11%), infectious diseases (3, 11%), weight loss (7, 27%) and miscellaneous (5, 20%). These 13 breast cancer patients constitute 1.36% of 956 breast cancers diagnosed over this three-year period. 8 out of 13 breast cancer patients in this group (62%) had metastases at the time of diagnosis. Conclusions: A significant number of breast lesions incidentally found on CT scans are shown to be breast cancers (50%). These patients need rapid access to one-stop breast clinic for full evaluation. [Table: see text]
Incidental breast lesions detected on diagnostic CT scans: A 3-year prospective study