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Breast Cancer

Fibroglandular Tissue on Mammogram

02/02/2011

Question:

I had a second mammogram done that was a diagnostic and ultrasound I was told that the finding was fibroglandular dense tissue and the ultrasound was normal and to retake in 6mos. what does that mean. I am a 57 yr old African American woman that have always had good test resultss. In recent I`ve also had a breast reduction so would that be a cause for the readings?

Answer:

Jumping into a situation without knowing you or your mammogram, realize that I can only interpret on the basis of what little information that you provide. Simply by undergoing breast reduction, the mammogram changes significantly because of the scarring that takes place internally. Because these changes are new, your radiologist likely did the diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound to make sure that these changes did not reflect a process that was suspicious for breast cancer. It takes approximately two years for the scarring to settle down and stabilize. It is then customary to follow these changes every six months to make sure that these are not changing into something more suspicious.

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Response by:

Elizabeth Shaughnessy, MD, PhD Elizabeth Shaughnessy, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Surgery
College of Medicine
University of Cincinnati