Path Reports

It depends on the clinic/hospital about when you will get the results. Also, if the pathology department is backed up it may take an extra day or two.

Sheila

can you have them fax it to you?  Yes if you are able to, go pick it up (but only if you can handle what you see, without your doc being there to explain).

If you can get to the lab in time, you should be able to sign for them and get them, they belong to you.  Because of HIPA laws, it is unlikely they would fax them to you, but you can ask.  I know our lab has you sign a release to get them without your doctor signing off.

I would go get them, but I am the type of personality not to panic.  Some ladies do prefer having a doctor go over the report with them, but I would hate being made to wait that length of time. I will be thinking benign thoughts for you.

Congratulations.  Your biopsy does not show breast cancer. 

What it shows is a variety of conditions, the most serious of which is ADH (atypical ductal hyperplasia), a high risk condition.  Usually when someone gets a diagnosis of ADH from a needle biopsy, it is recommended that an excisional biopsy be done to remove the entire suspicious area.  This isn't because the ADH itself is a concern (the ADH can safely remain in your breast) but is because ADH sometimes is found together with DCIS, and most doctors want to be sure that there is no DCIS anywhere else in among the suspicious calcifications.  In 80% of cases, the excisional biopsy finds nothing more serious that ADH.

Assuming that ADH remains your final diagnosis, this is a high risk condition that increases your risk of BC to approximately 16% - 30%.  Whether you are on the high side or the low side of those numbers depends on your own personal & family health history,other risk factors you may have (or not have).  With ADH, usually the recommendation is continued screening, often as part of a "high risk" program.  This could mean more frequent mammograms, or possibly the addition of MRIs.  Sometimes Tamoxifen is recommended but usually this is only the case for those who have ADH along with another high risk factor; Tamoxifen is not usually recommended for those who have ADH alone.  This is because as risk factors go, while those with ADH are considered "high risk", ADH alone puts someone on the low end of the "high risk" scale, with annual BC risk often still below 0.5% per year.