Architectural Distortion in screening mammogram

Danielle414

Help! I just had my second mammogram ever. First one was 3 years prior.

Here is the result of the most recent one. I’m going crazy looking at all the likelihood of what it could be online. Most point to cancer.

Has anyone ever had a false architectural distortion????

Radiologist report below-

BREAST TISSUE:Category C: The breasts are heterogeneously dense, which may obscure small masses.

FINDINGS:

There is an asymmetry in the right breast at 12 o'clock middle depth. There is architectural distortion associated with the asymmetry.

No other significant masses, calcifications, or other findings are seen in either breast.

IMPRESSION: INCOMPLETE

The asymmetry in the right breast is indeterminate. A diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound is recommended.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Patient will be contacted and scheduled to return for the additional imaging.

Beesie

Sorry that no one has responded yet.

From the following website: https://breast-cancer.ca/archite-reast-mammo/

"Breast cancer commonly causes architectural distortion.

Architectural distortion uncommonly indicates cancer. More common is for architectural distortion to be 'imaginary' in the perception of the radiologist."

In other words, at this point it is an uncertainty on the part of the Radiologist. That's why you need the additional imaging, the diagnostic mammogram, which will take a close-up look at the area of concern, and the ultrasound, which will view the area of concern with a different screening modality that 'sees' the breast tissue differently. There might be no cause for concern at all once the area is looked at in more detail. However if the architectural distortion is still present, then you move on to a biopsy, at which point the result might be benign (for example, sclerosing adenosis or a radial scar or fat necrosis) or either a non-invasive (DCIS) or invasive (IDC) cancer. Which would be more likely depends on the assessment from the next set of imaging.

So could it be false architectural distortion? At this point, given that you've only had the screening mammogram, yes, absolutely it could be.

Good luck with the next imaging. Hopefully you get all the answers there and this turns out to be false alarm.