Birads4, going straight to excisional biopsy?

MemeToDrew

Waiting to hear from Breast Institute to schedule biopsy. In the meantime, I picked up my radiology report for some light reading😉 To summarize, there is a 'Suspicious Lobulated Solid Mass with irregular margins and posterior shadowing. Birads 4, advise surgical excisional biopsy'. Is it fairly normal to skip the needle biopsy and go straight to excisional biopsy?

marie5890

Yes, Meme, it's not uncommon to have that done.

ChiSandy

If the mass is small enough and likely to be self-contained (and/or in a convenient location), "cutting to the chase" is an option. Especially if the imaging points to benign but atypical and a risk factor for developing invasive disease, better to get it all out rather than just biopsying a sample and monitoring the rest of it.

MemeToDrew

Thanks! 😁

Irony

I work in a breast center. It is uncommon for us to recommend surgical excision without biopsy unless the area is not amenable to biopsy, ie too far posterior or suspicious but too faint to accurately biopsy.

The benefit of stereotactic or ultrasound biopsy is to figure out what something is before jumping to surgery. As an ultrasound tech. I have seen things that look terrible, but come back as normal vice versa.