Excisional biopsy

Faith85
Faith85 Member Posts: 18
edited July 2016 in Waiting for Test Results

I had an excisional biopsy on Friday and my follow up is this Friday. My surgeon said that the freeze testing showed some unidentifiable areas. The longer process testing was required. He treated it as cancer during the surgery so it is all out. Can anyone explain to me what would cause the tissue to be unidentifiable or what that means? My doctor did express he was concerned. Of course, I know not to jump to conclusions.

Thank you to anyone who may be able to help!

Comments

  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited July 2016

    Faith, my first thought would be additional staining to verify whether cells are lobular or ductal (e cadherin testing) or perhaps how far along a continuum something like atypical cells might be, such as the difference between ALH and LCIS, or something needing a second look. There are lots of things that aren't necessarily "bad" that it could be.
  • Faith85
    Faith85 Member Posts: 18
    edited July 2016

    Okay, thank you! I was extremely worried a couple months ago (before my first biopsy). Since that came back benign (intraductal papilloma), I'm really less anxious. Before this biopsy, my doctor said he was confident that it was nothing invasive but not so confident it wasn't DCIS. The stuff he said after surgery just wasn't as clear to me (maybe because of anesthesia lol) and my hubby and mom seem to have talked to 2 different doctors. Lol

  • Faith85
    Faith85 Member Posts: 18
    edited July 2016

    Another question. Is underarm pain common after an excisional biopsy? I figure the itching and burning around the site are the healing process but not sure about the underarm pain?

Categories