To determine the clinical profile of benign and malignant mastalgia in terms of age distribution, geographic location, laterality, pain severity and pattern.

METHOD: This is a 3-year (April 1,2001 until March 31, 2004) retrospective chart review of female patients presenting with mastalgia in a hospital-based government breast center at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Cebu City. Malignant mastalgia was diagnosed based on histopathologic findings. Pain severity assessment was based on a numeric scale of 0 to 10. Exclusion criteria include patients without mastalgia as chief complaint, no histopathologic confirmation of malignancy and males. All statistical computations were done using Chi square test with a = 0.05.

RESULTS: A total of 1237 patients (89 percent) had benign mastalgia with an average age of 29.72 +/- 10.96 years and 156 (11 percent) had malignant mastalgia with an average of 48.92 +/- 11.96 years. Patients less than 60 years of age had a statistically significant probability that their mastalgia is due to benign pathology (p < 0.001 at a 0.05). However, for 60 years of age. there is a significant probability that the cause of mastalgia is malignant (p < 0.001). Right-sided mastalgia showed a significant probability for a benign cause (p value of 0.0132). Further, non-cyclical pain pattern significantly connotes malignant mastalgia with p < 0.001. No significant differences were found for geographic location and pain severity.

CONCLUSION: Age above 60 years, right-sidedness and non-cyclical pain pattern are the only significant factors for differentiating whether the mastalgia is due to a benign or malignant etiology.