Imaging the Breast in Pregnant or Lactating Women (original) (raw)

Abstract

Purpose of Review

To describe the imaging evaluation of common benign and malignant breast lesions encountered in pregnant or lactating women.

Recent Findings

There is increasing prevalence of pregnancy-associated breast cancer as the age of women during pregnancy increases. Women in the first 10 years following pregnancy demonstrate an elevated risk for breast cancer compared to the average population. MRI has been shown to be more sensitive for evaluating the extent of disease in lactating patients than mammography or ultrasound.

Summary

The hormonal effects of pregnancy and lactation on the breast lead to distinct physiologic changes and pathologic lesions, which can manifest in unique imaging appearances. Most patients will undergo ultrasound for primary diagnostic evaluation. While mammography is not routinely utilized, it is not contraindicated even in pregnancy given the negligible radiation dose to the fetus. While most detected lesions are benign, pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) is a rare diagnosis that must always be excluded. Women with PABC have a worse prognosis than age-matched controls partly due to delay in diagnosis. Thus prompt and accurate work-up of PABC is critical to improve outcomes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, 975 Sereno Dr, Vallejo, CA, 94589, USA
    Vignesh A. Arasu & Joseph C. Kim
  2. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, USA
    Vignesh A. Arasu, Neeta Kannan, Priya M. Krishnarao, Bonnie N. Joe & Amie Y. Lee
  3. Department of Surgery, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Vallejo, CA, USA
    Gillian Kuehner
  4. Department of Hematology-Oncology, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, San Leandro, CA, USA
    Ming C. Kuan

Authors

  1. Vignesh A. Arasu
  2. Neeta Kannan
  3. Priya M. Krishnarao
  4. Gillian Kuehner
  5. Ming C. Kuan
  6. Joseph C. Kim
  7. Bonnie N. Joe
  8. Amie Y. Lee

Corresponding author

Correspondence toVignesh A. Arasu.

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Conflict of interest

Vignesh A. Arasu, Neeta Kannan, Priya M. Krishnarao, Gillian Kuehner, Ming C. Kuan, Joseph C. Kim, Bonnie N. Joe, and Amie Y. Lee declare no potential conflicts of interest.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical collection on Breast Imaging.

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Arasu, V.A., Kannan, N., Krishnarao, P.M. et al. Imaging the Breast in Pregnant or Lactating Women.Curr Radiol Rep 6, 10 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40134-018-0267-7

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