I'm a 32 year old male and I recently discovered a large (5cm diameter) growth in my shoulder joint. My GP quickly dismissed it as a lipoma. He said he would take it out but not until I'm off warfarin. I will be on warfarin for the next 12 months due to a carotid artery dissection on the same side as the lipoma.
I'm curious if a lipoma can be diagnosed without a biopsy. I would hate to wait 12 months only to find out its cancerous and has been spreading. He offered to allow me to have an ultrasound to rule out cancer. I found a radiology website that said an ultrasound may only be used to identify whether a mass exists but not to characterize the mass.
Is the biopsy necessary to rule out cancer? Will an ultrasound rule out cancer?