Mammograms and Imageing

I had a Mammogram done last week and less than a week later they called me and wanted to do a re-call test.  They called it an imageing test so that they could take a closer look.  They said that they had found some calsifications in my left breast and said that although it was normal to have some calsification , mine was above the norm that they like to see.  I have never had anything like this reported before on any of my mammograms. What does this mean?  I am a 66 year old woman who has a family history of breast cancer.  My Mother started with it and end up with it spreading everywhere and passed away with it.  She also lost two sisters with it and My Father lost a sister with it.  Also, both of my sisters have had masses removed from their breasts which turned out to be cancer.  One is four years younger than myself and one is two years older.  Luckily it has not came back on either of them and it has been several years.  On my younger sister it had spread into her lympth nodes and in my older sister she caught it real early so had not spread.  I have had a hysterectomy but still have both my ovaries.  I also have instititional Lung disease and am on oxygen twenty four hours a day and go to the Jewish Research Center in Denver, Colorado every six months for a check up on that.  I live in Topeka, Kansas and have my regular doctors here as well.  I hope you can shed some light on this breast situation for me as I have never heard of this. I am not afraid, just a little nervous.  We all have to live with things that are beyound our control and we may not like it. but, there are no choices in these things.

[Marylou_II]

I hope the information I have may help you. I never had a family cancer history of any type, they all passed from old age and I never had any breast issues, have always been very healthy and I am 67. In May 2009 I had a primary gynecological cancer + radiation + chemotherapy and my treatments were finished by October 2009. I went to my oncologist for my post treatment check-up and the tumor was gone. By then my oncologist ordered many other tests to make sure that no metastasis to any other organs had occurred, they were all clean.

The last tests were a bilateral mammogram and MRI. My clinical exam and MRI tests were clean. My right breast mammogram showed micro calcifications these are like dusty or sandy very small calcifications that had grouped together and thus formed a cluster and of course nothing can be seen behind the cluster. That scares the hell out of doctors because the cluster could be hiding a tumor. Micro or macro calcifications can be normal and not cancerous but how the cluster is shaped is what makes all the difference. My cluster was a “lobular” shaped one and a biopsy was immediately scheduled, I was referred to a Breast Surgeon but I was so scared that I wanted a needle biopsy but the surgeon said I needed a surgical biopsy and a third of my breast would be removed and a slight reconstruction would be necessary.

The pathology results were back and yes it was cancer, small 12.0mm, but cancer all the same. The pathologist requested further marker tests R.E; R.P; Cerb-B2 & E-Cadherine. Then the mastectomy + the dissection of three lymph nodes, I now have all my results and only waiting for my oncology team to decide what is the most convenient treatment for me to avoid a future metastasis.  

Best regards.

[japdip]

Microcalcifications can be due to a variety of causes. They are found frequently scattered about within the breast tissue but when seen in certain patterns or grouped together they are cause for concern. Even in this case a great majority of them return a benign report when biopsied. I certainly wouldn't be jumping to conclusions just yet .... have the recommended additional films and see what those results are. If a biopsy is recommended then proceed with that also. One additional comment :  when cancer is found after biopsy of an area of calcification it is quite early .... no lumps, etc. These calcifications are only an indication of the response to something within the breast tissue that is not normal; but NOT necessarliy cancer.  Take care .....

[katarina777]

Dear Katherine, I would be worried too with such a huge history of breast cancer in the family right and left. I am so sorry about that.
please let us know what happens? Best and I will keep my fingers crossed. Katrin