Overview
Diagnosis of a breast lump involves getting an exam and possibly tests to find out the cause of the lump. During the physical exam, your healthcare professional checks your breasts, chest wall, underarms and neck. You’re checked while you’re sitting upright and again while lying on your back.
You’ll likely need one or more imaging tests to check for changes in the breasts. These include:
- Diagnostic mammogram. This is an X-ray of your breasts. During a mammogram, your breasts are compressed between two firm surfaces. Then an X-ray takes black-and-white images. When your healthcare professional orders a diagnostic mammogram, this tells the radiologist who reviews your images that you have a new breast concern. A diagnostic mammogram is different from a screening mammogram, which looks for breast cancer before a person has symptoms.
- Focused or directed ultrasound. This test uses sound waves to make images of the inside of your breasts. The sound waves come from a wand-like instrument called a transducer that is moved over your breasts. Your healthcare professional tells the radiologist about the area of concern on the breast.
- Magnetic resonance imagining (MRI). This exam is done less often than mammogram and ultrasound. An MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to see inside your breasts. During an MRI, you lie in a large, tube-shaped machine that scans your body and makes images. Sometimes, the breast MRI may be done even if the diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound look regular. For example, MRI may be used if your breasts are very dense, and your healthcare professional has concerns about the clinical exam of your breasts.
If these tests show that your lump is not cancer, you might need follow-up appointments. That way, your healthcare professional can check to see if the lump grows, changes or goes away.
If imaging tests don’t help diagnose the lump, your healthcare professional might take a sample of cells for lab testing. This is called a biopsy. There are various types of biopsies. Your healthcare professional recommends the one that is right for you. Breast biopsies include:
- Fine-needle aspiration. A small amount of breast tissue or fluid is removed with a thin needle. This procedure can be used to check a complex cyst or to drain fluid from a painful cyst.
- Core needle biopsy. A healthcare professional called a radiologist may do this procedure. A radiologist finds and treats health problems using medical imaging tests. With core needle biopsy, ultrasound is used to guide a needle into the breast lump and take a sample to check. Often, a tiny clip that you can’t see or feel also is placed into the biopsied area. It serves as a marker that lets healthcare professionals find the area again during future checkups.
- Stereotactic biopsy. For this procedure, you lie face down on a padded table. One of your breasts is placed in a hole in the table. Breast X-rays provide a 3D view of the breast to help guide a needle to the lump to collect a tissue sample. You may need this procedure if a suspicious area shows up on a mammogram, but the area can’t be found with ultrasound. A tiny clip often is placed at the time of the biopsy and serves as a marker for future appointments.
- Surgical biopsy. This procedure removes the entire breast lump. It’s also called a lumpectomy or wide local excision. You receive medicine to keep you from feeling pain. You also may be given medicine that makes you sleep during the procedure.
Whichever type of biopsy you have, your healthcare professional sends the tissue samples to a lab to be checked by a pathologist. That’s a doctor who studies diseases and the changes they cause in body tissues.
Symptoms
When to see a doctor
Complications
- High blood pressure.
- Diabetes.
- Heart failure.
- Some types of heart valve disease.
Prevention
- Control high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
- Don't smoke or use tobacco.
- Eat a diet that's low in salt and saturated fat.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week unless your health care team says not to.
- Get good sleep. Adults should aim for 7 to 9 hours daily.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Reduce and manage stress.
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