to biopsy or not to biopsy...??

Hi JulieC,
This is just from my personal experience, but if I were you YES I would insist on a biopsy. Honestly I can't imagine why any doctor knowing your history would not be doing one.
My mammogram and sonogram looked like a fibronoma (spelling) but the surgeon wanted it out anyway and guess what..surprise to not only me but the surgeon as well.
If for nothing else..piece of mind knowing that it is nothing, but with your history I would insist on a biopsy!
Let us know how you are doing.
Kris

Find another doc. He/she cannot know that the lump is nothing. I'm lucky that when I found mine all my docs took it very seriously. At 38, with no family history, I have cancer. So many lumps are benign, and then you can sleep at night and no longer have this worry, but if it is not...this is your life, don't take a chance. As horrifying as a cancer diagnosis may be, we are surviving it, and early detection is a key. My money is if you were his wife, the bx would have been done months ago.

Insist on a biopsy! I had something show up in a mammogram and was referred to a surgeon. An ultrasound had to be done to determine type of biopsy procedure that could be done. After seeing the tumor on ultrasound, the radiologist was 99% sure it was a benign fibroadenoma, but still wanted to do the biopsy to confirm that with pathology. It was a fibroadenoma. I had previously been diagnosed with and treated for DCIS / stage 0 in the other breast.

Julie I totally agree find another doctor and have the biopsy. I too found not a lump but just a thick area in my left breast, after mammo and ultrasound dr said there was nothing there and he found a small place as he called it in the right.

Well I was not insistant enough to push the issue and guess what 3 months later saw a surgeon and you guessed breast cancer stage 2B.

If only I had pushed my drs harder maybe I could have found this in an earlier stage and not have had to have the mastectomy and 6 rounds of TAC and radiation.

Please listen to those who have been there and push to have this seen about.

Let us know and I'll be sending good thoughts your way.

Robyn

I vote the BIOPSY!!!!!!!And ask alot of questions-re there are never any dumb questions-it's the only way to learn...My prayers are with you.

GOD BLESS YOU
W/Love
Sue

I was once in exactly the same position as you. My huge tumor was invisible to both mammogram and sonogram. I had two MDs (the gynecologist and the radiologist) telling me it was safe to simply monitor. They were very wrong. After 6 months, I insisted on seeing a surgical breast oncologist. She knew what it was right away, and did an immediate core needle biopsy.

Now, I feel that I should not have waited the six months. I ought to have aggressively sought out the care I needed. Neither the gynecologist nor the radiologist seems to bear any sense of responsibility for what has occurred.

When I described the entire time line of changes to the breast in response to the medical oncologist's questions, he just shook his head. Find a breast surgeon.
Love,
Denise

Julie,

Go for the biopsy. I too had a lump in my breast and the mammagram and ultrasound said it was fine. I waited a few months and the lump was still there. I went back to the doctor and she sent me immediately to a surgeon for a biopsy and it turn out to be cancer. I went through chemo, radiation and a mastectomy. I wish that the doctor would have told me about going for a biopsy, I might not had to have a mastectomy then. I don't want to scare you but it is better to be sure. Good Luck. Let us know how you made out.

Kathy