Galactocele of breast

Breast - nonmalignant
Benign tumors / changes
Galactocele of breast

Author: Monika Roychowdhury, M.D. (see Authors page)

Revised: 1 February 2016, last major update January 2016

Copyright: (c) 2002-2016, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed Search: Galactocele [title] breast

Table of Contents

Cite this page: Galactocele of breast. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/breastgalactocele.html. Accessed July 14th, 2017.

Definition / general

Milk filled retention cyst beneath areola, common in young women who are pregnant or breast feeding
Due to abrupt cessation of lactation

Essential features

Milk filled retention cyst due to blockade of breast duct
Occurs in young women who are pregnant or breast feeding
Mass lesion on imaging, mimics lipoma or cancer (history is helpful)
FNA / histology shows fat/protein contents, inflammation, debris and secretory epithelial cells
Benign; diagnostic aspiration may be curative

Etiology

Blockage of breast duct due to lactation

Radiology description

Mammogram: oval circumscribed mass with high radiolucency due to high fat content (mimics lipoma)

Radiology images

Nodule

Case reports

Male infant with hyperprolactinemia and bilateral galactocele (Int J Pediatr Endocrinol 2009;2009:578610)
36 year old woman with mass arising in accessory breast tissue in axilla (Arch Gynecol Obstet 2007;276:379)
37 year old nulliparous woman with prolactinoma (Maturitas 2009;62:98)
54 year old postmenopausal woman (Breast Cancer Res 2000;2:A53)
Due to augmentation mammoplasty (Aesthetic Plast Surg 2005;29:274)

Treatment

Aspiration or no treatment

Microscopic (histologic) description

Dilated, anastomosing, epithelium lined channels, often with secretory activity
Cyst contents may leak into adjacent tissue and cause lipogranulomatous reaction with foamy macrophages (J Cutan Pathol 2010;37:973)

Cytology images

27 year old woman with 1.5 cm nontender breast nodule and FNAC