More than mammo for dense breasts???

Mountain_Gem

Way back in the 70s the docs told me I had dense breasts. I had one benign lump removed when I was 25. After having a lumpectomy 1/25/12 I just had my first follow-up mammo Oct 1st. The mammos here are new (for them) digital machines.

Besides the normal stuff from the surgery the report also said, "

Scattered fibroglandular tissues in both breasts. No tumoral mass.

No tumoral calcifications. No enlarged axillary lymph nodes."  I was a little surprised that my Onc didn't want to also have at least an ultrasound. It took both to diagnose my cancer and they know I have lumpy dense breasts. But, no, not necessary is all the response I get about it. Lately, I've even seen where some women whose case was almost identiful to mine, also have MRIs. What do you ladies think? Am I just over-reacting about this? Should I try to get a 2nd opinion somewhere else? Thanks! I'm so happy that this forum is here.

aliyahgirl

Hi Mountain Gem,

I also heard all my adult life "dense breasts" and every time I asked what to do about it,, I always heard 'nothing, just keep doing your mammo'.  Well, about two years ago after a neg biopsy for calcifications, I decided to go online and look for clinical trials for dense breasts and found a clinical trial here at George Washington Hospital using 3-D Ultrasound.  Spoke to the lead investigator and she told me they found that 35% of tumors in women with dense breasts are not visible on mammogram.

In June I went for the 3-d US screening right after a totally normal mammo.  There was an area of tissue that looked funny.  They followed that with an MRI.  The weird area was fine but they found a 1.8cm tumor sitting in the breast.  Not visible on mammo, not on US, only with MRI.  I had biopsys, lumpectomy (2), and just finished radiation, and will be starting anastrozole tomorrow. 

Definitely be proactive and get a second opinion!  Call major medical centers in your area to find out if any of them have a 3-d US machine.  Not many hospitals have them yet but Ithink insurance will be covering soon so more will acquire them. 

You're not overreacting at all!  Many docs are really passive about this and evidence is proving them to be wrong, wrong, wrong!

Mountain_Gem

Thanks aliyahgirl. I don't think we have the 3Ds yet, but I'm only 1 1/2 hrs from Stanford. I'm gonna find out if they have them yet. Your story really encourages me to keep trying. That and the fact that I'm 63 yrs old. I know  the older we are the more chance of recurrence too.