Breast changes but no evidence in ultrasound?

[jackeller]

Hi, I am 27 years old and 2 months ago found an abnormality in my left breast. it is about a finger width and length and runs horizontally across the top of my breast, about an inch above my nipple. i am a dd cup, and i am no stranger to pain from swelling, but this feels like a deep bruise with a dull ache. i went to my general practitioner this week, and she found it by feeling the area - it is raised in the light, but she said it is hard to feel due to my dense breast tissue. she was pretty sure its a fibroadenoma. she sent me to have an ultrasound done, took some blood (my count is normal) and referred me to a specialist.

at the ultrasound, the technician couldnt find it easily. she described only finding a lump of dense tissue, and gave me the screens of the image. I am to see the specialist next week.

my question is, how sure is the technician that it is just dense tissue and not a tumor, if they both appear white on the screen? could this be the beginning of a tumor?

i will follow up with the specialist, but with all the reports and articles lately linking dense breast tissue and cancer, i wanted another opinion. thanks!


This discussion is related to Dense Breast Tissue?.

[jackeller]

thanks for the follow up.  but i have another question: does dense tissue just form, or is there anything that triggers it?  this is definitely a new development.

also, the reason i am worried about dense tissue and breast cancer is i have been reading over the last couple of years that dense tissue can be a breeding ground for cancer (see the links below):

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/breastcancer/6493/how-worrisome-is-dense-breast-tissue/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2008/12/why-dense-breas.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16673818/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/28/MN2S18HMVS.DTL&type=health

http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?doi=211954

[japdip]

There isn't really much of a relation between dense breast tissue and cancer other than the density of the tissue makes it more difficult to "see" these abnormalities. This may well be just lumpy breast tissue. MRI is a more sensitive type of imagery and can better discover abnormalities when dense tissue is involved. Radiologists can usually tell the difference in the appearance of tumor or tissue and if not then some type of biopsy may be recommended.   Regards ..