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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
Atypical hyperplasia is a precancerous condition that affects cells in the breast. Atypical hyperplasia describes an accumulation of abnormal cells in a breast duct (atypical ductal hyperplasia) or lobule (atypical lobular hyperplasia).
Atypical hyperplasia isn't cancer, but it can be a forerunner to the development of breast cancer. Over the course of your lifetime, if the atypical hyperplasia cells keep dividing and become more abnormal, your condition may be reclassified as noninvasive breast cancer (carcinoma in situ) or breast cancer.
If you've been diagnosed with atypical hyperplasia, you have an increased risk of developing breast cancer in the future. For this reason, doctors sometimes recommend more frequent breast cancer screening and careful consideration of medications and other strategies to reduce breast cancer risk.
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- Bombonati A, et al. The molecular pathology of breast cancer progression. Journal of Pathology. 2011;223:307.
- Hartmann LC, et al. Benign breast disease and the risk of breast cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;353:229.
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- Degnim AC, et al. Stratification of breast cancer risk in women with atypia: A Mayo cohort study. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2007;25:2671.
- Dupont WD, et al. Breast cancer risk associated with proliferative breast disease and atypical hyperplasia. Cancer. 1993;71:1258.
- Breast cancer risk reduction. Fort Washington, Pa.: National Comprehensive Cancer Network. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/f_guidelines.asp. Accessed Aug. 17, 2011.
- Breast cancer screening and diagnosis. Fort Washington, Pa.: National Comprehensive Cancer Network. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/f_guidelines.asp. Accessed Aug. 17, 2011.
- Pruthi S (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Aug. 31, 2011.
- Goss PE, et al. Exemestane for breast-cancer prevention in postmenopausal women. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2011;25:2381.
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