ABSTRACT
A 39-year-old woman presented to the breast clinic having noticed a reddened area over the medial aspect of the right breast for the preceding six weeks. The area was tender to palpation and the patient had been prescribed a course of antibiotics by her general practitioner. However, the erythematous area failed to respond and indeed extended to involve much of the right breast. The patient was not aware of any discrete lump or change in consistency of the right breast. She was otherwise well and reported no weight loss or unusual cough or back pain. There had been no previous breast problems, but there was a strong history of breast cancer in the family; her mother had been recently diagnosed with breast cancer in her 60s and the patient's maternal grandmother died from bone secondaries relating to a primary breast cancer. The patient had 3 children (eldest aged 9 years) and underwent menarche at the age of 10 years. She had used the oral contraceptive pill for a cumulative period of four years prior to her first pregnancy and remained premenopausal.
