International Clinical and Medical Case Reports Journal (ISSN: 2832-5788) | Volume 5, Issue 7 | Case Report | Open Access
Saqib Ahmed*
Seema Acharya1, Saqib Ahmed2*, Shivangi Bhandari3
1Professor, 2Assistant Professor, 3Post Graduate Student
Department of Pathology, Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical & Health Sciences, Dehradun, India
*Correspondence to: Saqib Ahmed
Fulltext PDFGranulomatous mastitis is an uncommon benign inflammatory condition of the breast that may closely resemble breast carcinoma in its clinical and radiological presentation. Differentiating between inflammatory breast disease and malignancy can therefore be challenging and often requires histopathological confirmation.
We report the case of a 33-year-old woman who presented with a gradually enlarging swelling in the left breast associated with nipple–areola complex retraction. Sonomammography demonstrated dilated retroareolar ducts with an adjacent irregular collection, and the lesion was categorized as BI-RADS III. Fine-needle aspiration cytology suggested duct ectasia with mastitis, while a core needle biopsy revealed granulomatous inflammation. Due to persistent suspicion of malignancy, the patient underwent wide local excision with oncoplastic reconstruction using a lateral intercostal artery perforator (LICAP) flap. Frozen section examination during surgery was negative for malignancy.
Definitive histopathological examination revealed lobulocentric granulomatous inflammation with suppuration and filamentous branching organisms. Gram staining demonstrated thin, gram-positive, branching bacteria suggestive of Actinomyces. The findings were consistent with suppurative granulomatous mastitis secondary to probable actinomycotic infection.
This case highlights the diagnostic dilemma posed by granulomatous mastitis and underscores the importance of histopathology and microbiological correlation in distinguishing inflammatory breast lesions from malignancy.
Granulomatous mastitis; Actinomycosis; Breast lump; Breast carcinoma mimic; Suppurative mastitis
Seema Acharya, Saqib Ahmed, Shivangi Bhandari. Actinomycotic Granulomatous Mastitis Mimicking Breast Carcinoma: A Diagnostic Challenge. Int Clinc Med Case Rep Jour. 2026;5(7):1-4.