AUTHOR=Majithia Jinita , Haria Purvi , Popat Palak , Katdare Aparna , Chouhan Sonal , Gala Kunal Bharat , Kulkarni Suyash , Thakur Meenakshi TITLE=Fat necrosis: A consultant’s conundrum JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2022.926396 DOI=10.3389/fonc.2022.926396 ISSN=2234-943X ABSTRACT=

Fat necrosis of the breast is a benign non-suppurative inflammation of the adipose tissue and often mimics breast cancers, posing a diagnostic challenge for the clinician and radiologist. It has a myriad of appearances on different imaging techniques, ranging from the pathognomic oil cyst and benign dystrophic calcifications to indeterminate focal asymmetries, architectural distortions, and masses. A combination of different modalities can assist a radiologist in reaching a logical conclusion to avoid unnecessary interventions. The aim of this review article was to provide a comprehensive literature on the various imaging appearances of fat necrosis in the breast. Although a purely benign entity, the imaging appearances on mammography, contrast-enhanced mammography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging can be quite misleading, especially in post-therapy breasts. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive and all-inclusive review on fat necrosis with a proposed algorithm allowing a systematic approach to diagnosis.