intraductal papilloma

mommy2lilfi

hello all,

I am 29with lots of breast cancers on both sides of my family. I am married with two and four year old daughters. I saw my obgyn yesterday for nipple discharge and breast pain. She diagnosed me with intraductal papilloma in my breast and is sending me to a breast surgeon in two weeks.

Ca anyone help me understand what is happening? The doc did a physical breast exam to make the diagnosis and told me it was not cancerous. Is this possible to know from only a physical exam without any imaging or biopsy?

My mother who had breast cancer at 40 will not speak to me because she is too upset? I am confused. I walked out of the obgyn office feeling happy to have a diagnosis and hear her say that it was not breast cancer. But now i am not so sure that everything is said and done...A

soldieron

Hello mommy2lilfi, I've been going through some breast changes as well. First, she can't diagnose you by just doing a cbe (clinical breast exam). It is good that she is sending you to a breast surgeon, this is for them to diagnose and treat you basically. They will probably do a mammo and ultrasound. From those images, they will determine if it is something benign (cyst) or something that needs a biopsy. Biopsies are typically 80% benign too. This is the process I have been going through. They found two fibroadenomas (benign) in my breast but I am having other problems now as well. My nipple is incredibly sore, brown discharge, and indentation on the side of my nipple. She is sending me to a gyno. Enough about me. I'm very sorry to hear about your mother. I can imagine she is just scared for you. Please let us know how you are doing and what the breast surgeon says. You can post in not diagnosed but worried forum, as you may get more feedback over there. Good luck, sending you prayers.

Straitlover

They will have to biopsy to know for sure if it is intraductal papiloma. if it is and they only do a core biopsy, they will go back in and remove the whole papiloma (excisional biopsy) becasue it is possible to for a papiloma to have bot begnign and malignant cells, so they take the whole thing out and chekc it really well.

Not to scare you, but please make sure you keep up with your screenings if that is what it turns out to be. I had them, and the rare tumor I ended up having can come from intraductal papilomas. So it is very important to not miss any mammograms, and since your mother had bc at 40, I might push for MRIs. That's how they finally found my tumor.

mommy2lilfi

Thank you both for replying to me. I am the kind of person who feels comforted by facts, and this is exactly what I wanted to know. Not knowing what is happening in my body is making me nervous so if i can focus on the next appointment and what is going to happen there, that calms me.

Soldieron thanks. I needed to hear somebody say I am not crazy, and imaging or further testing is required. With my family kinda going overboard, it is so comforting to hear someone explain that any diagnosis is a process that i havent truly fully began. How are things working out for you?

Straitlover thank you. I get flustered when I speak with doctors or people who dismiss me, and your encouragement to speak up about mri is a great confidence booster. I dont want to be the patient that gets all crazy unnecessarily, and your words give me faith that it is not unreasonable to request all imaging available to be sure that it is (or isn't) what they think. How are you doing these days?

Straitlover

I am doing OK. I had a rare tumor called low-grade adenosquamous carcinoma in my right breast. They say that they can come from the intraductal papilomas. I had those in my left breast also, which is why I decided to have the bilateral mastectomy (that plus my family history - two sisters and an aunt w/ bc - and not wanting to have to do mammograms and MRIs every six months until the end of time, and I was tired of all the biopsies I went through over the years). Since mine was low grade instead of high grade, I did not have to have chemo, and since I did mastectomy instead of lumpectomy, I did not have to do radiation.

WolfsLady

The others are right she can't be sure just from an exam and a biopsy will likely need to be done. It really isn't as scary as it always sounds to me. I do think that there is a test where they can check for papilloma cells in the discharge but I'm not sure that would rule out a coexisting cancer. I will say that a very high percentage of discharge is caused by a papilloma and nothing else. It is by far the most common cause of discharge. However that doesn't mean that you don't need to have it biopsied. I didn't have discharge with mine but my doctors told me that if I did the only thing to do was removed it. (or them) Otherwise with no symptoms I was told could leave it and do extra monitoring. Which I was going to do with mine but later I ended up having pain. My surgery went great though and I didn't have a lot of pain. It was a bit of an adjustment at first but a year out you can barely tell. The only thing I notice is that nipple is lower than the other. I wish they'd done a little tuck or something because then I wouldn't even notice it.

mommy2lilfi

hello all, just to update my post in the event someone has a simar experience in the future. I am now waiting to be scheduled for an ultrasound and mammogram to investigate. The breast surgeon attempted to express discharge, but was unable to. She said that is a good sign, and that perhaps it was dried up milk stuck in a duct that came out. She said the clear bloody part could have been due to the duct being irritated by the dried up milk. Or it could be something else.

I have never had a breast ultrasound or mammogram as I am only 29, so I guess it begins. My mother was diagnosed at 40 with dcis that became invasive to the surrounding tissue and lymph nodes. Her oncologist suggested I start mammograms at age 30, and since I will be turning 30 in October, I guess this is right on time. At least my insurance shouldnt give me too much push back.

Thank you straitlover and wolfslady for writing me back. It is inspiring to hear your stories and see you come out on the other side of your experiences. It give me hope thatno matter what is going on with me now or later, I will make it out of the woods with supportive people helpjng me along.

Any advice for a first time mammogram and ultrasound gal?

Straitlover

The ultrasound is no biggie. They just squirt some gel on your breast and move the handheld thingy around. If you're small breasted like I was, sometimes they have to press down pretty good to see something and it might smart a little.

The mammo will be a diagnostic where they take more views than a screening, so they will throw the diagonal squeezes in there. My best advice on that is take some OTC pain reliever before you go, relax as best as you can, and take a DEEP breath when they tell you to. I always felt like I was gonna run out of air before the machine let loose and I could breathe again even though in actuality it's only a few seconds.

Oh, and no deodorant before you go! It can interfere w/ the readings and cause false positives.