I Found a Lump or Abnormality. Now What?

Finding a breast lump or a change in your breast can be stressful and overwhelming. It is natural to feel scared and uncertain. As well as getting medical attention, you may also feel the need for support from your family, friends and our group.

REMEMBER: 80% of all breast lumps are not cancer. 

You are not alone. You have time to make choices. And you can help yourself:

• Mark the spot on your breast where you found the lump before visiting the doctor
• Make a list of your questions and concerns so you will remember them
• Seek more information if or when you need it from medical sources
• Ask about special tests such as Mammogram, Ultra Sound, MRI, special biopsies, etc.

If an abnormality is detected in your breast, a clinical examination will be performed by your family doctor and you will be referred to a diagnostic centre. The centre may be your local hospital or clinic, where you can have a mammogram and/or ultrasound. (Explanations are below.)

Mammogram

An x-ray picture of your breast used in screening and diagnosis of breast cancer. In addition to breast masses, it can show calcium deposits as well as abnormal tissue that may or may not indicate cancer.

Callback or Mammogram with Special Views

This procedure is sometimes requested if the pictures on a mammogram are not quite clear.This does not indicate that you have breast cancer. This is a very common procedure.

Ultrasound

The bouncing of sound waves off the breast to find out if a lump is fluid-filled (cystic) or solid (more likely to be cancerous).

Fine Needle Aspiration

A fine needle is put into the lump. If fluid is drawn out and the lump disappears, it is probably just a cyst (but this is something your doctor will determine). If no fluid comes out, then it may be solid. The doctor will try to draw out cells from the lump to send for testing.

Biopsy

The doctor will remove a small piece of lump tissue from the breast for testing.

Needle Localization

When a lump cannot be felt but there is a questionable area on a mammogram, a fine wire is placed into the spot. With this help from the x-ray, the surgeon has a better guide to do a biopsy.

Stereotactic Core Biopsy

A needle biopsy done using computerized equipment to remove a small core of tissue from the lump for testing.

Wedge Resection

A larger pie-shaped area of the breast tissue is removed.

Your doctor will then receive the mammogram, ultrasound and other results. These results may not yet give enough information for a definite diagnosis so it may be necessary to examine some actual breast tissue (surgical biopsy).

Referral to a surgeon is the next step. This appointment is used to discuss your biopsy procedure and hospital arrangements. To conduct a biopsy, the surgeon, using a local anesthetic, will make an incision (cut) and remove some breast tissue (specimen) from the suspicious area. This specimen will be sent to a pathologist, a doctor who specializes in the structure and function of cells and tissues and who studies how various changes relate to specific diseases.

The pathologist sends the results to your surgeon. Your family physician can also obtain these results. You will be told whether the tissue they examined is benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer). 

Lumpectomy

The lump and a small amount of the tissue around it is removed.

Quick or Frozen Section

During surgery, a small slice of the breast lump tissue is frozen and looked at under a microscope. This may help the doctor to know if the lump has cancer cells.

Lymph Node Dissection

If a lump or abnormality is indeed cancerous, several lymph nodes from under your arm may be removed for testing to see if the cancer has moved out of the breast. If so, chemotherapy will be advised.

 

 

 

(These guidelines are general and are not intended to replace the specific advice of your physician.)