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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 carcinoma in situ or noninvasive 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.
- Non-cancerous breast conditions. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6X_Non_Cancerous_Breast_Conditions_59.asp. Accessed Aug. 19, 2009.
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- Hartmann LC, et al. Benign breast disease and the risk of breast cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;353:229.
- London SJ, et al. A prospective study of benign breast disease and the risk of breast cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1992;267:941.
- 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.
- Kiluk JV, et al. High-risk benign breast lesions: Current strategies in management. Cancer Control. 2007;14:321.
- Breast cancer screening and diagnosis. Fort Washington, Pa.: National Comprehensive Cancer Network. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/breast-screening.pdf. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Breast cancer risk reduction. Fort Washington, Pa.: National Comprehensive Cancer Network. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/breast_risk.pdf. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
