Concerned about Pagets

Tgaspar

My 16 year old daughter has symptoms of Pagets disease of the breast and a history of prior breast conditions. Her current symptoms are itchy, flaking, crusty skin around the nipple and light yellowish discharge from the nipple. Previously, she had a cyst deep in the breast tissue that required surgery to drain. I don't know if the two have anything to do with each other, but I'm concerned about the latest symptoms. She was diagnosed with dermatitis and told to use over the counter creams. The itching and flaking does come and go but the redness on the nipple does not go. Does this sound like something I should take her for a second opinion for or does Pagets stayou red and flaky all the time?

Moderators

Hi Tgaspar-

We completely understand your concerns, and if a second opinion would help alleviate some of your fears, we always recommend getting one. But Paget's disease is incredibly rare, and accounts for less than 5% of all diagnosed breast cancers. It typically develops after the age of 50, with the average age of diagnosis for women being 62. You can read more it on our main site: http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/types/pagets.

The Mods

lessharp

Symptoms of Pagets can come and go. However; as the Mods says it is a very rare condition...and even more so in a young girl. I would suspect something else first. Can you get her to a dermatologist and they can biopsy the nipple area? That may be a good way to find out exactly what you are dealing with.

Best of luck to you and your daughter!

Maya15

Hi, it sounds likely that it's something to do with the cyst or an infection, but you should rule out something else if the creams she has don't work. The advice I was given when I was going through this 6 months ago was: if creams haven't cleared it up within a week, go see a dermatologist. My dermatologist first did a culture test for infection, and when it came back negative she did a biopsy of the nipple to rule out cancer. She thought it looked suspicious for Pagets even though I'm "too young" even for mammograms and the biopsy in fact came back positive. I should say, this is very rare. Most biopsies show something benign.

Mconcerned

Hi Maya15,


What were your symptoms of pagents? I had a lump about 18 months ago, and had mammo, ultrasound and MRI, all said it was reg tissue or a cyst. Today I woke with my nipple chapped around one side, right next to areola. It's on the same side and I'mJust wondering if they are related.

thanks!