Chronic Inflammation of the whole or a part of the breast sometimes occurs, and may closely resemble a true tumour. It may disappear under the prolonged application of warmth and moisture, or other remedies which favour absorption, or may end in abscess.
Tumours.—The breast may be the seat of almost any of the numerous forms of Tumour (q.v.) met with in the body. Far the most common varieties in this situation, however, are glandular tumours and hard cancer. Glandular tumours (adenocoele) vary much in size, form, and consistence, but present in their intimate structure more or less resemblance to the normal structure of the breast, and are not dangerous to life. Their removal may be necessary on account of the pain or inconvenience they cause the patient. Cancer (q.v.), on the other hand, is all but invariably fatal if left alone, and the whole gland affected with it should be removed at once as soon as the nature of the case is recognised. Unfortunately, however, the disease frequently returns. It is most important that any lump in the breast, not obviously inflammatory, should at once be shown to a medical man, though in some cases it may be hardly possible, even for the most practised, to decide at once its nature. Here it must suffice to say that cancer of the breast very rarely begins before the age of thirty; in a woman younger than this, therefore, a tumour is not likely to be of a serious nature.
The male breast is occasionally, but very rarely, the seat of disease.