Cluster of Calcification in Mammogram

[Under Forty Pam]

I am having a breast biopsy done this Friday due to a circle cluster of calcification.  Apparently a year ago I had only a scatter pattern of no concern.  What causes this calcium deposits, can I change something I am doing exercise and eating?  Also, I have read I have a 4 / 5 chance of it not being cancer, is this accurate?  Or are the chances higher with it being in a circle pattern?

[DonnaRee]

I just need a place here to vent and to share my experience. I went for a second opinion last Friday for a cluster of clacs (small cluster) that was unsuccessfully biopsied via stereotactic Mmammotome 2 weeks ago. This (2nd) doctor was a cancer surgeon who reviewed my films. He told me that if I was comfortable, I could wait 4 months and come back for another mammo to see if there's been any change and if no change, we continue in 6 month intervals for another year or so, just to make sure. He said that they were not "worrisome" to him, as described by the initial radiologist report. He even said that calcs often just disappear on their own. I trust that he knows what he's doing, since he has about 30+ years in medicine, most of it in cancer sugery and has worked at notable institutions lsuch as the Fox Chase Cancer Center. So, I'm writing this for all of you out there who are in the same anxiety-filled situation and are told the only option is an excisional biopsy for microcalcifications. You need know all of your options. You have the right to a second opinion from a breast/cancer specialist. Even if you go ahead with the surgical biopsy, you will feel better knowing you are in control of your own body. I'm not suggesting anyone forego a biopsy. I was and still am all for the stereotactic route. But with the alarmingly high number of needless sugeries, it is concerning to me that most of us just do whatever we're told, because it's one doctor or radiologist telling us to do it. They are not infallable and many are certainly not without the fear of being sued for not having ordered a biopsy. You also need to trust your gut. I know this is a breast cancer forum and I have tremendous respect for all of you who have been diagnosed and have struggled with this disease, but with 85% of these biopsies being benign, it seems that science needs to really ramp up the research to #1) eliminate this disease altogether and #2) develop better diagnostics to stop the needless anxiety and surgeries. Thanks for letting me vent and my very best to all of you.

[boninclyde]

Do you have your results yet? Please keep us posted. We are all in this together.

[Under Forty Pam]

Keep us posted if you have questions, you become way too familiar with your own type of cancer in about one month.  We'll help.

[rubygram]

I have been reading posts here and find them so helpful. I had a steriotactic biopsy done on Thursday and I am waiting for the results. Hopefully, I will get a call tomorrow.

[Under Forty Pam]

Boninclyde - Have you received your test results yet?  Yours seems near the same spot as mine.  On my lumpectomy they cut along the outer edge of the nipple (areola).  I didn't know that was where they were going to cut.  I guess it is common there to minimize a scar, and they could be right, I am very swollen still but I can see where it might not be too noticeable.  I think my biopsy scar will show more but nobody is going to see them except my husband anyway.  Just giving you some thoughts to run by your surgeon if you end up that route.  Why are you considering a mastectomy, is it in your family or are you nervous about reoccurence?  You don't have to answer if you don't want to, just curious since nobody even suggested it to me.

[Under Forty Pam]

It was an outpatient surgery, no overnight stay for me.  The wire thing was 10am and the surgery was suppose to be at 1pm but the surgeon was late, it started at 2pm, I remember looking at the clock in the OR room.  They put me out but not deeply out, no tube down my throat, more like if you had a tooth pulled.  They actually woke me up in the OR to ask me to move myself back off the operating table and on to the gurnee again.  I was a little out of it but I hoisted myself over and thought it was strange to wake up still in the OR room.  I don't really remember going to the room then just waking up again in the room.  I left at 5:15pm that same afternoon.  They said as long as I could eat some food and dispose of the food I could go home so I did both and got the heck outta there, I hate hospitals.