ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2022
No association between breast pain and breast cancer: a prospective cohort study of 10 830 symptomatic women presenting to a breast cancer diagnostic clinic.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Awareness regarding breast cancer amongst women in Pakistan: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Likelihood of breast cancer among women presenting with breast-related symptoms in primary care, with a focus on isolated mastalgia: a retrospective cohort study.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Assessing ethnic inequalities in diagnostic intervals of breast cancer among patients presenting symptoms to general practitioners in England.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Knowledge and awareness of breast cancer signs and symptoms among Jordanian women.Future science OA · 2025Article
- Evaluating a novel patient pathway to manage symptomatic breast referrals (the blue flag clinic): a longitudinal observational study.Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England · 2025Observational
- Revisiting the Need for Breast Imaging in Young Women with Clinically Significant Breast Pain and a Normal Physical Breast Examination.Breast care (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Community breast pain clinics can provide safe, quality care for women presenting with breast pain.BMJ open quality · 2024Article
- Evaluation of a pilot of a community virtual triage for breast symptoms outside of usual primary or secondary care pathways.Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England · 2024Article
- Efficient management of new patient referrals to a breast service: the safe introduction of an advanced nurse practitioner-led telephone breast pain service.Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England · 2024Article
- The association of breast surgery ASPIRE: breast pain pathway rapid evaluation project - study protocol.International journal of surgery protocols · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWomen with breast pain constitute >20% of breast clinic attendees.
aimTo investigate breast cancer incidence in women presenting with breast pain and establish the health economics of referring women with breast pain to secondary care. DESIGN AND
settingA prospective cohort study of all consecutive women referred to a breast diagnostic clinic over 12 months.
methodWomen were categorised by presentation into four distinct clinical groups and cancer incidence investigated.
resultsOf 10 830 women, 1972 (18%) were referred with breast pain, 6708 (62%) with lumps, 480 (4%) with nipple symptoms, 1670 (15%) with 'other' symptoms. Mammography, performed in 1112 women with breast pain, identified cancer in eight (0.7%). Of the 1972 women with breast pain, breast cancer incidence was 0.4% compared with ∼5% in each of the three other clinical groups. Using 'breast lump' as reference, the odds ratio (OR) of women referred with breast pain having breast cancer was 0.05 (95% confidence interval = 0.02 to 0.09,
conclusionThis study shows that referring women with breast pain to a breast diagnostic clinic is an inefficient use of limited resources. Alternative management pathways could improve capacity and reduce financial burden.
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