Tubular adenoma of the breast in an 84-year-old woman: report of a case simulating breast cancer.

Tubular adenomas of the breast are rare and they mainly occur in young women. They must be differentiated from other benign lesions and from malignant breast cancer. Preoperative diagnosis is difficult because both radiologic and cytohistologic examinations performed before surgery are often not diagnostic; therefore, in most cases, surgical excision is the only way to reach a precise diagnosis and a definitive treatment. This article describes a case of an 84-year-old woman suffering from tubular adenoma of the breast. The authors underline the difficulty in preoperative differentiation between benign and malignant breast lesions.