How do doctors gauge size of radial scar?

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Concerned2018
Concerned2018 Member Posts: 65
edited December 2017 in Benign Breast Conditions

Just how does radiologist or surgeon or pathologist gauge size of radial scar?

I see other women posting the size of their scars. I see articles that distinguish between large and small. But this is all making me quite anxious as my doctors can't tell me? How do they KNOW the SIZE of one's radial scar lesion? Can they tell you this from one of the scans? mammo? U/S? MRI? from biopsy?

I asked how big my lesion is and my breast surgeon just shrugged - looked at me like I had 2 heads for asking. Finally said, "I don't know - radial scars are microscopic" - huh? My pathology report said I had quote "complex sclerosing lesion (radial scar)" but no mention of size. My surgeon said those terms were used synonymously though others on here and other info I read said one term implies a larger scar - so not sure what to believe now. Regardless, for those that learned their size, how in the world did they tell you the size? Can anyone on here comment what it might suggest if they could NOT gauge the size of mine? And yet the pathologist still seemed to "know" mine was large enough "not to be entirely contained in the core biopsies" -- so super confusing.

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  • Agel
    Agel Member Posts: 11
    edited December 2017

    They saw the size of my complex sclerosing lesion in my left breast in the MRI. In the MRI they also saw that what I have in my right breast is "tiny". I think they mentioned the size ofthat too but I don't remember exactly. Have you done an MRI?

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  • marie5890
    marie5890 Member Posts: 3,594
    edited December 2017

    Many times a size of a lesion is gauged by taking a ruler and measuring on the image that is shows up on mamma/us/mri. Yet this is still just preliminary and can be inaccurate and can change when surgically removed.

    The actual size of a non-cancerous lesion isn't nearly as important (other than it can be obscuring other areas of the breast) as a cancerous one. Size matters when it comes to cancer because it plays a part in determining the stage cancer.

    I can understand why would you would be interested in knowing the size of the radial scar ( I was curious when I was Dx-ed with what is known as PASH, also a rare lesion), but it's not all that important at this point.

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  • Susaine
    Susaine Member Posts: 28
    edited December 2017

    Just follow them is good for us. Because as a doctor they just love when we hear them.

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