Natural history of cystic disease: The importance of cyst type

Abstract

All breast cysts aspirated from a series of 100 patients followed for a minimum period of 2 years were classified on the basis of electrolyte composition as apocrine or flattened, this being the nature of the epithelium lining the two populations of breast cysts. Patients with single cyst were more than 3 times as likely to have a flattened rather than an apocrine cyst. Multiple cysts, whether simultaneous or sequential in any individual patient, were usually all of the same type, and were more commonly apocrine than flattened. A comparison of the frequency of subsequent cysts in patients whose initial cysts were of eithere apocrine than flattened. A comparison of the frequency of subsequent cysts in patients whose initial cysts were of either apocrine or flattened type showed further cysts were over 5 times more common in patients who presented with apocrine cysts. These observations suggest that the natural history of cystic disease is closely related to cyst type.