Abstract
A 41-year-old woman who had had accessory mammary glands in the bilateral axillae since her lactation about 14 years earlier, when white nipple discharge from the accessory nipples started. After finishing lactation, the discharge decreased, however, the discharge from the left accessory mammary nipple changed to bloody discharge three months ago. The patient was thus referred to our hospital. Ultrasonography demonstrated normal mammary tissue under the accessory nipple, and no obvious tumorous lesions were seen. Cytology of the nipple discharge revealed adequate specimen and probably benign, but the presence of myoepithelial cells was obscure and there were many cell clusers. Her clothes were usually stained with blood due to the bloody nipple discharge, so that the resection of the left accessory mammary nipple and mammary tissue under the nipple was done for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment. The histopathological diagnosis was intraductal papilloma. The patient has been uneventful and followed for observation as well as for screening of breast cancer up to now.
In the treatment of the accessory mammary gland lesions, we can seldom obtain the definite diagnosis by fine needle aspiration cytology or core needle biopsy. Surgical biopsy may have to be considered for cases in which a possibility of malignancy cannot be ruled out or in which the patients have some troublesome symptoms against daily activities.
