Bi-RADS on ultrasound report

I think Dr. Susan Love has a description of BiRADS numbers - I read it somewhere. 3 is "probably not cancer," 5 is "this looks highly suspicious for cancer," and 4 (which I had) was "we don't know what this is but you definitely need to biopsy it." There were apparently other things that were not cancer that could result in the same BiRADs number, so BiRADs 4 didn't mean I definitely had cancer. It just meant "we see something and we need another way to look what's in there."

BiRADs is just a descriptive system to label ultrasound findings - a 4 or a 5 means you need a biopsy. Perhaps a 5 is just more clearly abnormal than a 4, but that really doesn't translate into anything specific as far as cell details or size of a possible cyst or tumor or whatever.

Remember that there is not always a link between size of a tumor and spread - they used to think there was. You can have a giant tumor that has not spread beyond the breast, and you can have affected nodes with a 1 cm tumor. It just depends on the nature of the type of cancer, and you can only determine that by taking it out and checking the nodes. All they can really tell from an ultrasound is whether you need a biopsy. From a biopsy, you may be able to tell type of cancer and possibly grade, but not stage. Surgical removal and examination of removed nodes are the only way to truly stage and grade a cancer.

I was a birads 5 with a 5 cm tumor. I was a 2a 4 yrs. ago and doing just fine.