What is Pagets Disease of the breast?
According to Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book (3d ed.), pp. 403-404: “Paget’s disease of the breast is a form of breast cancer that shows up in the nipple as an itchiness and scaling that doesn’t get better. It’s often mistaken for eczema of the nipple – a far more common occurrence. Paget’s disease is almost never found in both breasts so, if you’ve got itching and scaling on both nipples, you’ve probably got a fairly harmless skin condition. However, if it doesn’t get better, you should check it out, whether it’s on one or both nipples. After a diagnostic mammogram, your doctor can biopsy the skin of the nipple, removing only about a millimeter or two of skin. If it’s Paget’s, the pathologist will see little cancer cells growing up into the skin of the nipple. “There are probably two variants of Paget’s disease: one associated with an invasive cancer in the breast and one that involves only the nipple. Paget’s disease that involves only the nipple has a better prognosis than regular brea
