Just Diagnosed with Intraductal Papilloma

orion16

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading through the forums, and all the posts here got me through my waiting period.

Background: Screening mammogram found asymmetric focal and called back for an ultrasound. In US, they found a 5mmx4mmx5mm mass. I did a core biopsy this Tuesday and the results came back benign but still recommends surgery. Here are the descriptions:

Sections show breast tissue with features of intraductal papilloma. There are papillomatous fronds lined by cytologically bland ductal epithelium. There is no significant cytologic atypia. There is no carcinoma. The papilloma involves multiple cores and measures up to 0.4 cm in greatest dimension on a single core. The papilloma extends to the edge of the core biopsy.

The oncologist nurse recommends seeing a surgeon get it removed. She sent me a list of surgeons. There are general surgeons and breast surgeons. My questions:

1) Do I need to go for a breast surgeon? Or a general surgeon will be sufficient? I have a tiny dense breast. The mass is at the far right upper outer breast.

2) I feel like it was good news today, but then she said they want to look at cells around the intraductal papilloma. That gets me a little anxious. Can I consider myself off the hook for BC, at least this time around? The uncertainty and procedures after procedures aren't settling too well.

Thank you so much in advance.

kathabus

I had one spot that was cancer and one that was a papilloma. In my mind the papilloma was definitely a win. Nothing to worry about. Glad we found it...we took it out....there’s nothing more to tell!

You can use a general surgeon. I was told I could have used one. Since I was dealing with cancer I wanted a breast surgeon that had experience with obtaining clear margins and all of that. If it was just the papilloma I would have maybe felt differently. I went to my nurse navigator a lot for advice like that.

Anytime you have surgery like this to remove something the pathologists always do their due diligence and analyze it. That’s nothing to lose sleep over. When I had my hysterectomy they looked at all of that too to make sure. That’s what they do. Just an extra step of precaution.

Most likely you will remove this papilloma and be good to go. But of course keep getting your mammograms. Hope that helps! Good luck!

AliceBastable

ANYTHING that's removed from your body gets sent to the pathology lab, and the pathology report gets sent to your doctor and posted on your patient access account. It can be helpful to your doctors to know in the future if you are prone to certain types of growths.

LivinLife

Hi orion! Sounds like good news for you. they never know until final pathology about what's really going on they they are also experts so often have a pretty good idea what they're looking at from scans, etc..... hopefully no surprises for you upon final analysis.... I agree with the a general surgeon would be fine in this situation if you're comfortable with that. I would have gone with the general surgeon (my 1st opinion) though when I heard Grade 3 DCIS with comedo necrosis and recommendation of a mastectomy I knew I had to get a second opinion with a breast surgeon. I then stayed with the breast surgeon and the team she assembled... Depends on your comfort level.... Please let us know how things go....

orion16

Thank you so much for everyone's reply. Truly appreciate this board and all your wisdom. I am going to go with the general surgeon as I am familiar with the facility and I know the surgeon from my past experiences.

The nurse told me yesterday I probably won't get appointment till July but I will definitely come back and keep you all posted. Again, thank you!

BrooklynWoodpecker

I learned in grad school that surgeons who do a lot of the same surgery get the best results, so the more experience the surgeon has with similar surgeries, the better. The studies that I remember were about hernia and knee replacement operations --- surgeons who do 500 or more a year had the best results --- but it seems like it would apply to any surgery.