Breast Lesions During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period



 

This lecture is about common neoplastic, inflammatory and infectious conditions affecting pregnant women and women during the postpartum period. Breast lumps in pregnancy or lactating women are usually benign lesions. However, lactation predisposes women to mastitis, which is managed with empiric antibiotics. Infection that does not respond to antibiotic treatment will require imaging and biopsy to rule out a more sinister lesion responsible for the clinically evident mass or abnormality. In rare cases, additional examination will uncover underlying malignancy, which are typically tumors with adverse histopathologic characteristics and advanced clinical stage.

Originally published on July 7, 2022


Lecture Presenter

Jolanta Jedrzkiewicz, MD

Jolanta Jedrzkiewicz, MD

Medical Director, Anatomic Pathology
ARUP Laboratories

Dr. Jolanta Jedrzkiewicz is a medical director at ARUP Laboratories and an assistant professor (clinical) at the University of Utah. Dr. Jedrzkiewicz received her medical degree from Poznan University of Medical Sciences and then completed an anatomic and clinical pathology residency at the University of Utah. She then completed a surgical pathology fellowship at MD Anderson and a gastrointestinal pathology fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Jedrzkiewicz is board certified, and her research interests include diseases of the gastrointestinal tract with special interest in tumors of the appendix.


Objectives

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the differential considerations for breast lumps during pregnancy and the postpartum period
  • Compare and contrast lactational mastitis, periductal mastitis and cystic neutrophilic granulomatous mastitis
  • List the most common histopathologic and clinical characteristics of pregnancy associated breast cancer (type, stage, biomarker status, differentiation, etc)

Sponsored by:

University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, and ARUP Laboratories