Need Advice on What kind of Biopsy is Best.

[judiblue]

Hi Everyone. You all have been marvelous to me in the past and have taken me from knowing nothing about my breast health to having enough info to talk intelligently to my doctor.  Thanks for all you people like me.

Here we go... I had a breast MRI in Feb, they found 5 masses. Three in US & Mamm were listed as benign, probably fibroidenoma. What is concerning me is the two they could not see on US or Mamm. The doc said they were very deep and close to the chest wall and hard to get to. They had me wait 6 months to get a follow up MRI and the good news is that nothing changed on the spots. However, my doctor is concerned because one of the masses is described as irregular enhancing mass with irregular margins.  Great news.  Finally my question....

What type of biopsy do they do so that hey can get way back against the chest wall.  I may need to do some research.  I am scared to have any biopsy.  What do I expect as far as pain.  I know these are considered the easy stages of all this but I am very scared of the biopsy.  Thanks for listening!

[judiblue]

Thanks. I'd like to go into the surgeon next week knowing what I am talking about.  I'll let you know ho the results go.  Take care.   Judi

[Dr Santos]

How are you? It's good to hear that your follow up MRI is still the same.  MRI-guided breast biopsy  can be used to help guide the instruments to these 2 masses in your breast especially if mammogram and ultrasound could not detect them,  This procedure is less invasive than surgical biopsy, leaves little or no scarring and can be performed in less than an hour. Recovery time is brief and patients can soon resume their usual activities.

MRI guidance is used in four biopsy procedures such as 1) fine needle aspiration  which uses a very small needle to extract fluid or cells from the abnormal area; 2) core needle which uses a large hollow needle to remove one sample of breast tissue per insertion.;
3) vacuum-assisted device  which uses a vacuum powered instrument to collect multiple tissue samples during one needle insertion; and
4) wire localization, in which a guide wire is placed into the suspicious area to help the surgeon locate the lesion during surgical biopsy.

You could read more about the procedure and  what to expect through this link: http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=breastbimr&bhcp=1

I hope this helps. You could discuss this with your doctor as an option. All the best on  your biopsy and keep us posted.