Home HealthTopics Health Centers Reference Library Research
Join us on Facebook Join us on Facebook Share on Facebook
Share

Breast Cancer

Mammogram results

04/09/2000

Question:

I am a 41 years old woman. I have been in excellent health all my life. I do not smoke, drink or eat too much fat diets. I have no obvious symptoms of breat cancer and do not have any close relatives with any types of cancer.Last week I had my 1st baseline mammogram and just received a letter today saying that they would like to do further evaluation via x-ray or ultrasound. What does that mean? What are they looking for? Whatever it is, what are the chances that it could be malignant? Anyway, please respond with your answer so that I may have some peace of mind till my next appointment for the ultrasound. Thanks.

Answer:

I can appreciate that this follow-up may be scary for you. It is not unusual that this type of follow-up occurs. The mammogram showed something in your breast that seemed abnormal. It can be as simple as dense tissue in the breast that shows up as a shadow. You are still premenopausal so your breasts still have areas of dense tissue. A mammogram can show a round and smooth white area that turns out to be a cyst or a benign tumor called fibroadenoma. An ultrasound is necessary to see if it is a cyst. There are other benign or noncancerous conditions that look like cancer on a mammogram. So you see it may turn out to be nothing or a benign condition instead of cancer. I congratulate you for having your baseline mammogram at age 41. Every woman should have a baseline mammogram at the age of 40 or soon after. If there is a problem, it can be taken care of very early. Thank you for writing so we can remind other readers. I hope some of your anxiety is relieved.

For more information:

Go to the Breast Cancer health topic, where you can:

Response by:

University of Cincinnati Janet Trigg, RN, MSN, EdD
Formerly:
College of Nursing
University of Cincinnati
Janet Trigg, RN, MSN, EdD