Background: Breast cancer is one of the three most common cancers worldwide, along with lung and colon cancers. It accounts for 27% of all female cancer in the western world. A higher incidence of breast cancer has been observed in young age group and one – fourth women suffer from breast disease in their life time after puberty. Early diagnosis is the key to increased survival and every breast lump must be examined and evaluated to rule out malignancy.

Objective: to assess the incidence of malignancy in females presented with breast lumps and to find out the age related incidence of benign and malignant breast lumps in those patients.

Patient and Methods: A prospective study was conducted among 241 patients presented with breast lumps in the surgical outpatient clinic in Al – Kadhimain medical city from June 2019 to December 2020. The assessment was done by thorough history, clinical examination and fine needle aspiration cytology. Cases with cytology diagnosis of benign lesion but showing any sign or suspicion of malignancy were subjected to core needle or excional biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. After confirming the diagnosis of the lesion, age related incidence of benign and malignant lesions was determined. Patients presented with recurrence of malignant lesions were excluded from the study.

Results: 75.94% of breast lumps were benign and 24.06% were malignant. The incidence of malignancy increases from 0% in 2nd decade to 42.59% in the 5th decade and 100% in the 8th decade.

Conclusion: The incidence of malignancy increases with age with a maximum incidence in the older age group. However, malignant breast lumps had been reported in the 3rd, 4th and 5th decades of life. Therefore, more cautions are required in managing breast lumps especially in younger age group between 30 – 50 years. Females with breast lumps should be encouraged to seek medical advice as soon as the lump is detected.