Growing Mass on MRI but not showing on Mammo or US

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FabFive
FabFive Member Posts: 14
edited January 2019 in Waiting for Test Results

I have a strong family history of breast cancer. Every woman on my mom's side of the family has had it back four generations including my mom and my sister at age 36. My sister and I have been tested for BRCA1 and BRCA 2 and both of us are negative. I have been seeing a high risk specialist and I started early MRI and mammogram screening's at 32. Six months ago they found a 6mm mass on my MRI and classified it as BiRad 3. They requested I do an MRI again and I just received those results and the mass is still there but has now grown to 1.2 cm. They had me do a mammogram and the mammogram shows nothing - the mass can only be seen on MRI. I am having a biopsy tomorrow. I am just wondering if anyone had heard of something similar where they had a growing mass that turned out to not be breast cancer? I am just in this stupid waiting game trying to decide if it is possible it is nothing to worry about.

Update: Went in for an ultrasound biopsy this morning and they were on able to find the mass on ultrasound. So now I am scheduled for an MRI biopsy next week. I'm feeling very confused, has anyone had a positive MRI with a negative mammogram and biopsy ?

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited January 2019

    No, but I had a positive MRI and negative mammogram and ultrasound, and the biopsy matched the MRI findings.

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  • FabFive
    FabFive Member Posts: 14
    edited January 2019

    Ksusan thank you. The doctor that did the ultrasound today seemed to think it might be DCIS but it just seems weird to me that it didn’t show on Mammogram or Ultrasound. I just hate being in this waiting game.

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  • ShinyLife
    ShinyLife Member Posts: 28
    edited January 2019

    My mass is only seen as an architectural distortion on a mammogram. The mass itself is only visible by ultrasound and MRI. Hope your biopsy goes well and comes back benign. Mine came back benign but being worked up for a possible false negative. Having excisional biopsy next week. So you’re not alone. Hang in there

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited January 2019

    Ja, my IDC didn't even appear on mammogram.

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  • Rah2464
    Rah2464 Member Posts: 1,647
    edited January 2019

    FabFive my IDC didn't show on 3D mammogram or ultrasound. It was only found by MRI. Sorry you are having to go thru this but really glad they are doing a biopsy to be sure. Hoping it is benign for you.

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  • wallycat
    wallycat Member Posts: 3,227
    edited January 2019

    You are telling my story. 10 years of negative mammograms. MRI picked something up so we went to ultrasound for biopsy. Ultrasound found nothing. Back to MRI for the biopsy. Here I am. My twin had an MRI that picked something up, but her biopsy was b-9. MRI finds things other imaging equipment does not but it still does not mean cancer is definite. Good luck.

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  • Runnermum
    Runnermum Member Posts: 383
    edited January 2019
    • Found my own lump. Showed on 3D mammogram and US but doctors thought it looked benign. Doctor gave me the option of waiting 6 months and repeating US or having a biopsy immediately. I didn't want to wait and worry for 6 months so scheduled the US biopsy. US biopsy came back positive but still did not have a good reading on size. Doctor scheduled an MRI. MRI came back with 2 additional suspicious spots. MRI biopsy on both of those. 1 was benign and 1 was positive. I have dense tissue and now also receive a yearly MRI in addition to a yearly 3D mammo.
    • And yes MRIs can find areas that do not show on other imaging and majority of time it is benign. But it's best to do everything you can to make sure you find everything and rule out anything. I wish you the best. Good luck!
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  • Salamandra
    Salamandra Member Posts: 1,444
    edited January 2019

    My understanding is that a big part of using MRIs for screening is that they are much more sensitive than other imaging. The pro is that they are more likely to catch cancer early, and the con is that they catch many things that turn out to be nothing but can cause a lot of stress and extra medical procedures.

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  • leftduetostupidmods
    leftduetostupidmods Member Posts: 620
    edited January 2019

    Mine showed on mammo. Negative on ultrasound. MRI showed it double the size the mammo showed plus similar size tumor in other breast (10 cm). Went for BMX. It was as mammo had shown (4.5 cm) and the other breast was false positive MRI. So yes, MRI can show false positive. Only biopsy/excision cant tell it as it is. Let's hope you got a false positive.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited January 2019

    Some BCs (like ILC) have a higher tendency to hide from scans like mammos. So it's possible.

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  • FabFive
    FabFive Member Posts: 14
    edited January 2019

    Just wanted to update everyone (I always like to know what happens with everyone else - I hate not knowing what happens for someone). Anyways I went in for my MRI biopsy and the mass that they are able to see they weren't able to see when they had the breast compressed in the grid. They have seen it on 3 other MRI's so they know that it is there but the compression from the grid I guess limited the ability of the area to absorb and show the enhancement or something like that. So I was told that is a really good sign that whatever it is is benign since most likely cancer cells wouldn't compress like that. But I need to go back in again in 6 months for a follow up MRI. So I guess it is good news but I still don't feel like there is a definitive answer one way or another - so we will just play the watch and wait game again. Thanks for everyone's feedback and support!

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