I'm concerned with a section on my mammogram. Below is the exact section and wording:
FINDINGS:
There is dense fibroglandular tissue bilaterally. Focal areas of asymmetry are noted in the inner right breast and upper left breast.
THE ABOVE IS A 2003 exam results, 2004 exam results returned normal, 2005 exam I'm due to take this summer
I INSISTED THEY DO A DIAGNOSTIC BREAST EXAM AND I BELIEVE I MADE THE EXAMINER MORE NERVOUS THAN I WAS. I am just so frightened that I may get the horrible disease of breast cancer one day. I lost my Mother (colon cancer) 1996, Father (lung cancer) 1986, Grandmother 1955 (stomach cancer), Uncle (stomach cancer)1985, Uncle number 2 (carcinoma of the skin) 1996 and I just get paranoid walking past a hospital now.
SHOULD I BE CONCERNED? I have been reading stories on that word "FIBROGLANDULAR" and each and EVERY story CONNECTS it to the early ages of cancer. I recently turned 47 and I have not gone through menopause.
I just browsed the on-line American Journal of Roentgenology about "Lobular carcinoma in siti of the breast: clinical, pathologic, and mammographic features by BJ Beute, L Kalisher and RV Hutter at the Department of Radiology, St.Barnabas' Medical Center, Livingston, NJ 07039.
THE LAST SENTENCE OF THIS ARTICLE STATES (and frightens me more) that: "large amounts of fibroglandular density postmenopausally supports the concepts that mammographically dense breasts are a marker for increased cancer risk in women 50 years and old and older.
Dear worried2much: A BIRAD score of 1 indicates normal breast
tissue. A BIRAD score of 3 indicates a radiologic abnormality which has a 2-4% chance of being malignant and requires short term follow-up. Since the report you received is unclear to you, the best way to get clarification is to contact your doctor. Then he/she will be better able to make a future
recommendation. Of course, if you are concerned, a second opinion is always an option.