Fibroadenoma in women in Ghana

BACKGROUND: Fibroadenoma is the commonest benign tumor of female breast. It is particularly common in young women in Africa. METHOD: This paper describes the clinicopathologic features of fibroadenoma of breast in African women from central Ghana and compares them to the data from African-American women. RESULTS: Fibroadenomas constituted 47.7% of all palpable breast masses. The median age of women was 22 years (range 14-49). Almost a third of the cases occurred in teenager. The mean size of masses was 3.8 cm (range 1-9 cm), with 22.5% showing larger sizes. A total of 16.1% had multiple and/or bilateral lesions. CONCLUSION: Women from Central Ghana tend to have proportionately more fibroadenomas and larger (>5 cm) variants compared to published data from African-American women, however, the average age, size, multifocality and bilaterality do not differ significantly between these two groups of women.