Mammogram done. Fibroid s or cancer?
Patient: Hello - I was just called yesterday from my hospital and was told I needed to be re-checked after a mammogram was done last Friday, April 19th.  I was told that changes have occurred since my last check over a year ago and that I had two focal areas of breast nodules that area size 12x5x5 mm; and another 10x3x3mm.  Of course, I am concerned and no one will no if they are cancerous until I am re-checked...just wondering if that is a common size for fibroids or just fatty tissue.  I am going back for pictures and an ultrasound. Doctor: Hello Welcome to healthcare magic.  It is not possible to tell about type of tumor from size because sometimes even small tumor are cancerous while big tumor can be non-cancerous. One way of knowing what type of nodule you have is looking at BIRADS catagory of lesion.It is nothing but standard way of catagorizing finding of mammogram in scale of 0-6   Category     Diagnosis     Number of Criteria 0     Incomplete     Your mammogram or ultrasound didn't give the radiologist enough information to make a clear diagnosis; follow-up imaging is necessary 1     Negative     There is nothing to comment on; routine screening recommended 2     Benign     A definite benign finding; routine screening recommended 3     Probably Benign     Findings that have a high probability of being benign (>98%); six-month short interval follow-up 4     Suspicious Abnormality     Not characteristic of breast cancer, but reasonable probability of being malignant (3 to 94%); biopsy should be considered 5     Highly Suspicious of Malignancy     Lesion that has a high probability of being malignant (>= 95%); take appropriate action 6     Known Biopsy Proven Malignancy     Lesions known to be malignant that are being imaged prior to definitive treatment; assure that treatment is completed   If the lesion is suspicious,doctor will do Fine needle aspiration cytology  to determine type of the nodule. So no need to worry.  Regards