[Clinical manifestations in benign breast diseases. The surgeon's role in the evaluation of signs and diagnostic work-up]

From January 1988 through December 1995, 1022 patients having a breast disease have been operated on in our center. Of them 342 had a breast malignancies whereas 680 beared a benign breast disease. Benign breast pathology presents to the physician two main problems, they are: i) the need to rule out a breast cancer, which often may be simulated by special clinical presentation ii) the need to determine if eventually such a benign lesion can degenerate into a malignancy. We conclude according to our experience and following several authors that although a very careful diagnostic evaluation must be performed for every breast lesion, only few benign lesions arising with particular patterns can change into a breast cancer.