Background: Breast tumours are very common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide specially in developing countries. Breast lesions show broad spectrum of disease patterns in respect to benign, malignant, and non-neoplastic. Breast cancer is one of the most frequently occurring cancer among women.

Objective: To study the frequency, age distribution, clinical and histological patterns of neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of breast in this rural population.

Material and methods: This observational study was conducted over a duration of three years. In which we studied 210 cases of breast lesions. Specimens were received in department of pathology. Grossing, tissue processing, staining done according to standard protocol. Haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections were examined under microscope to categorise different type of lesions in the form of non-neoplastic and neoplastic.

Results: Out of 210 breast lesions, fibroadenoma was the commonest (114 cases) benign lesion. While invasive ductal carcinoma (70 cases) was commonest in malignant category. Non neoplastic lesions stand on third place, study showed 6 cases out of 210 total cases, in which acute mastitis (4 cases) was most common. Benign tumours were mostly seen in 2^nd and 3^rd decade and malignant tumour mainly in 5^th and 6^th decade

Conclusion: Early histopathological diagnosis of breast lesions is very important to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions. Large number of cases of invasive ductal carcinoma (>33% of all cases) were seen in our study, which is a serious concern. So, generation of awareness among women is need of time to reduce the morbidity and mortality specially in Indian rural setup

sanjeev singh