Light micrograph of cancerous cells in Paget's disease of the nipple. In this rare form of breast cancer, the milk ducts of the nipple become cancerous. Here, the three ducts are the pink rounded areas surrounded by cancer cells with darkly stained nuclei. Paget's disease of the nipple causes flaking skin, itching and burning pain in the nipple, and is often mistaken for eczema. This cancer will spread to the rest of the breast unless removal of the tumor, or a mastectomy (removal of all or part of a breast) is performed.