exisioned tumour tissue

Supportive

Do you think a breast surgeon can pretty much tell the different types of breast lesions i.e. idc and dcis... fibroadenoma and papilloma and other breast lumps by visibly inspecting the removed mass during surgery before its sent off to pathology for an overall diagnosis and hystological work up

NancyHB

My BS is very experienced and had been my surgeon through both diagnoses of cancer, as well as surgery for a complicated cyst in the same area (in between my dx'd). He was able to tell us what it looked like each time and gave us his impression of expected diagnosis, but did not "tell" is it was cancer at that moment because it really needed to be confirmed by pathology. We knew we had reason to be concerned, and were not surprised by our dx. I suppose, after all these years he would know the difference between IDC and ILC and maybe even DCIS, but I've never asked him

On the other hand, when he removed my complicated cyst he was very up front with us that it was not cancer, and gave us all the gory details of what he removed. He sent it off to pathology "just in case" and we were, again, not surprised to learn it was completely benign.

We all want to know immediately upon surgical excision what our surgeon has found, and I think for the most part we walk away with an idea of what it is. But we really do have to be patient for pathology to ensure its what it looks like, and that there's nothing lurking we didn't expect. I know it's hard - almost impossible - at times to be patient. You have every reason to believe your current lump is benign; try not to "borrow trouble" and worry too much about something that has every expectation of coming back benign.

Good luck.