Breast Pain and Lump

[DarciD]

I went to my ob/gyn for an exam following over a year of pain in my left breast.  The pain has been increasing and spread to my underarm.  She found a lump.  I had an US and Mammogram which showed "nothing of concern".  I am waiting to meet with the surgeon.  I cannot find any information on negative Mammo/Us with a lump evident on physical exam!  What should I expect when I meet with the surgeon?  I know pain is not usually associated with breast cancer....

[Rose123246]

I had the same thing in 2004 where a lump was felt physically, but did not show up on mamo.  I had a surgical lumpectomy and it was found to be benign.  My doctor said that lumps should always be checked out, but usually end up as benign, however some cancers cannot be detected on mamos.

Good luck to you!

[DrBhumikaMD]

Hi,
You need to discuss with your surgeon the option of a biopsy and also the various types of biopsies avaliable to you as an option. That would depend on the clinical examination - the size, site of the lump. Most lumps are non malignant but still need to be investigated further to rule out a malignancy. Do not panic and just discuss all your doubts with your doctor. You could try some OTC painkillers and warm compressus till then. Goodluck.

[metalgirl70]

I am going through this same scenario.  I found a lump  (that had intermittant pain) that could not be seen on the mammogram or the US.  Just today I went in for a surgical excisional biopsy and I am waiting for the results. The surgery was done with IV sedation and I was in and out of there in 2 hours, with only slight pain by the incision and a little dizziness from the sedation.  Much easier than I thought it would be.

I have been very anxious about this whole ordeal and I asked the surgeon after the procedure if he could give me any information about his impressions of the lump.  He said we'd have to wait 2-3 days for the official pathology report, but it didn't appear to him to be anything scary.  That's good news and I can't wait for the pathology report to come in to find out what my lump was.

In the past few weeks I have done so much research on Internet, and lumps that are felt but not  found of mammogram or US seems to be more common than people know.  Most lumps are benign, but when the other tests are conclusive, I think a biopsy is in order, at the very least to give you some peace of mind.