单纯性乳房疼痛或者疼痛性包块在临床常见，大约占（乳腺门诊）新就诊患者的50%（Breast pain alone or painful lumpiness is common and accounts for approximately 50% of all referrals of new patients to clinics）

乳房疼痛是乳腺癌的少见临床表现（Breast pain is a rare symptom of breast cancer）。

乳房疼痛可以由乳房本身或胸壁引起（Pain in the breast can arise from the breast or from the underlying chest wall）

细致的检查能够鉴别出乳房本身的疼痛和胸壁疼痛（Careful examination can differentiate chest wall pain from true breast pain）

少部分乳房疼痛的人需要药物治疗（Few patients with breast pain need treatment with drugs）。

在爱丁堡有一项10年的调查研究表明，乳房疼痛的人只有2.7%的人发现有乳腺癌，而乳腺癌患者中约4.6%的患者以乳房疼痛为主要表现（ In a 10-year survey in Edinburgh of 8504 patients presenting with breast pain as their major symptom, 220 (2.7%) were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer. During this period 4740 patients had breast cancer, which means that 4.6% of women with breast cancer had pain as an important presenting symptom.）。