Benign breast disease: when to treat, when to reassure, when to refer.

Many women have breast symptoms-swelling and tenderness, nodularity, pain, palpable lumps, nipple discharge, or breast infections and inflammation. Fortunately, relatively few have breast cancer. Physicians must distinguish benign breast conditions from malignant ones, and know when to refer the patient to a specialist. We have included some of the newer diagnostic techniques and the approach to patients with nonpalpable lesions detected on a screening mammogram.