Biopsies missing the mark

Yoshidoc

I'm feeling discouraged because I still have no answers. I had my screening mammo in Dec. I was called in for diagnostic images and ultrasound. I was told during the US that I would need a biopsy, and scedulednit for the following week. Jan 10, US guided core biopsy. Radiologist told me as she is doing it that I would need a 2nd one. Post biopsy mammo confirmed the clip was no where near the area of concern. Pathology report said benign and concordant. Ok, good.

I had biopsy #2 today, this time stereotactic core biopsy. This one was also a miss. A different radiologist performed the biopsy and told me the area is difficult to reach. We took several films both before, during and after. Clip marker showed the biopsy missed the area of concern.

Now they are recommending I have a tomo- stereotactic biopsy. The closest place is an hour away. So I'm still in a waiting game for answers.

I am beyond disappointed and frustrated that I've had 2 biopsies now, and neither one was able to take a sample. I have an ~ 15 mm area of distortion with posterior shadowing. BIRADS 4A.

Has anyone else gone through this?

Andie1209

I am surprised the first biopsy was considered concordant if they missed the target but I don’t know much about distortion and shadowing. Typically the imaging has to align with the sampling. My clip migrated 2cm immediately following my biopsy but the radiologist said there were changes to the mass post biopsy. I also took my imaging CD and pathology slides to a surgeon at a different hospital for a 2nd opinion. She said there were pictures of the needle going into the mass so she felt confident in their findings. I am so sorry you have to go thru all of these tests...I can’t imagine the stress and anxiety! Praying you get benign results on the 3rd attempt

blah333

I have BIRADS 4A on a swollen lymph node (or two), one has been swollen since 3 months after my mastectomy. In January they took 3 samples (fine needle aspiration) and it took a long time to get them. I wait 8-9 days and call for results, they say I need to come back. Today I had my second biopsy. They tried to take a more straightforward path, two samples were taken but then they took 45+ min to try to get a third sample. They also just went ahead and made two extra incisions. Fucking annoying..... we gave up on trying to get the third sample, but now I have 4 needle marks that will probably scar for ONE biopsy that they are struggling with. Both biopsies I was on the table for 1-1.5 hrs while they fiddled around in me. Really annoying.

Oh - and they were able to successfully put the biopsy clip in the center of the swollen node but somehow not get samples from that node. WTF.