Had a duct excision for testing.

Irishwoman627

Hi everyone, it's been a long and painful 2 months while still waiting on answers. I have severe pain and clear/blood discharge from my left breast. Went to have a mammogram done on the 7th and they "found nothing but I have dense tissue" so I left confused and no answers. Before this I was just talking with my Ob. Who said I may be just hormones but labs came back normal. Finally went to a surgeon who said there was in fact blood coming from my duct and that she wanted to do a duct excision to have it tested. ( on the 27th) waiting on test results which we were told we would have at the follow up appointment on the 5th. Waiting is horrible right now. I feel like she wouldn't have done the surgery if there wasn't a decent chance of it being positive right? This is all so new and was never really discussed growing up or even in too many health classes on what to expect. Any help or insight would be great. Thanks.

leaf

Its always nice to know what order of magnitude 'low' or 'high' means.

Well, different studies differ, but for example, in this study In contrast, presence of bloody discharge was not significantly associated with malignancy (p=0.324). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28739767

In another paper, The postoperative diagnosis in 61 patients (24.70%) was a nonmass lesion, and 186 patients (76.52%) had an intraductal tumor. Among those with intraductal lesions, 10 patients (4.05%) had a malignant tumor, including 4 (1.62%) with ductal carcinoma in situ and 6 (2.43%) with invasive ductal carcinoma. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28464874

In this paper, with an average 7.1 year followup,Histologic examination revealed (in situ or invasive) breast carcinoma in 10.9% (20) of patients and high-risk lesions in 11.4% (21). Malignancy or high-risk lesions were found in 25% (OR: 1.37; 95% CI: 0.62-3.00) of patients with bloody discharge. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26799061 So the chance of it being a malignant tumor was pretty low (10 patients out of (186+61), or roughly 1 patient in 25.)

I'm sure there are other studies that may give other results. I know 'low' or 'decent chance' is in the 'eye of the beholder', but these odds seem fairly low to me. Best wishes for a totally benign result.

SCgirl26

I totally understand what you are going through! I just had my a terminal duct excision done on my left breast 2 weeks ago today. I had discharge for a few months before I told my husband and he insisted I see the doctor, that was back at the end of May. I spent most of the summer having testing done and doctor appointments. I really struggled with having surgery without knowing exactly why it was being done. The good news is I received my results on Tuesday and it was benign, a papilloma. They have to remove the duct to stop the discharge and the bleeding. I know the waiting is hard, luckily you found this wonderful community and they are all here to offer you support. Sending prayers your way for benign results!

Irishwoman627

thank you for the information and support. I really appreciate it. Knowing a little more is helpful. There is way too much information online to shuffle through to really know what's good medical information and what's just junk. Recovery from this is a little harder then expected, but getting better each day.

Irishwoman627

so came back benign so I'm happy about that. However my nipple is now caving inward. Is that normal?