Scared by mammogram results: Might be cysts, biopsy to confirm

Some of the terms I am familiar with, as I am actually dealing with some if it myself right now. I had a regular screening mammo early Oct and they found a possible architectural distortion in right breast with no sign of associated mass. That's the one that had a lump which turned out to be breast cancer back in 23'. Since then the lump shrank away from treatment, to where it was no longer palpable and didn't show on images. My mammo from last summer showed no sign of it. Anyway, they called me back for diagnostic mammo and ultrasound which confirmed the architectural distortion but still showed no cause for it. So I have to have biopsy in a few days of the area to see if the cancer is growing back or something new or maybe just fibrous tissue.

As they might have already mentioned before to you that your breast tissue is dense, which makes it harder for mammograms to always see things clearly. I have the same issue and they tend to want to do follow up imaging with diagnostic mammogram or sonogram in hopes to see better. My understanding is that MRI is actually the best imaging for dense breasts, I don't know why they don't just do that instead for women who they already know have dense breasts.

The distortions they mentioned, means there is a pull of tissue to one area. Sometimes this can just appear that way from an overlap of tissue when they took the images. It can also be from scar tissue from previous things like biopsy, surgery or trauma. They did mention that there was no obvious masses associated with them that seemed to be causing the pull so that's good. They are often accompanied by a mass and it's being distorted because of that mass pushing/pulling the tissue out of it's normal place. Sounds like they want to maybe just do more pictures from different angles to better see the areas. Sometimes on further imaging they won't even see those distortions, if it's just from an overlap or simple causes like that.

Cysts and calcifications are very common, I myself always have both, they typically only worry about calcifications when it's a bunch of tiny ones near each other.

Dense breasts cause more shadowing on sonogram, so it sounds like they were having trouble seeing areas clearly because of this. When I had mine done last month, they had the same trouble and even things like ligaments cause areas of shadowing that can make some spots hard for them to view. The possible hypochoic area with questionable internal
calcifications means it's a darker area with calcifications in it. It sounds like they want to check it out because of the calcifications being clustered in the one area, this can sometimes signal an area of concern or an area they might want to keep an eye on down the road. It could just be a cyst or fibroadenoma which are both benign, so while there is always a chance that something suspicious can be something malignant there is a higher probability of it being something benign. The possible irregular hypoechoic area is once again a darker area but irregular just means the shape of it. Same as before, it can easily be a cyst, fibrous tissue, inflammation, all kinds of benign things.

Since all these things they are mentioning are just stated as possible and can very easily be related to the shadowing issue making it hard for them to see. As well as that they can also all be from simple, common things like cysts and such I personally wouldn't be too concerned about it yet. If they do the additional images and are still wanting more after that, like biopsy, I would be more concerned at that point... even though it could still be nothing even at that point.

I hope some of that helps explain some of it better and maybe ease your mind as you wait for more info/testing/etc.

Some of the terms I am familiar with, as I am actually dealing with some if it myself right now. I had a regular screening mammo early Oct and they found a possible architectural distortion in right breast with no sign of associated mass. That's the one that had a lump which turned out to be breast cancer back in 23'. Since then the lump shrank away from treatment, to where it was no longer palpable and didn't show on images. My mammo from last summer showed no sign of it. Anyway, they called me back for diagnostic mammo and ultrasound which confirmed the architectural distortion but still showed no cause for it. So I have to have biopsy in a few days of the area to see if the cancer is growing back or something new or maybe just fibrous tissue.

As they might have already mentioned before to you that your breast tissue is dense, which makes it harder for mammograms to always see things clearly. I have the same issue and they tend to want to do follow up imaging with diagnostic mammogram or sonogram in hopes to see better. My understanding is that MRI is actually the best imaging for dense breasts, I don't know why they don't just do that instead for women who they already know have dense breasts.

The distortions they mentioned, means there is a pull of tissue to one area. Sometimes this can just appear that way from an overlap of tissue when they took the images. It can also be from scar tissue from previous things like biopsy, surgery or trauma. They did mention that there was no obvious masses associated with them that seemed to be causing the pull so that's good. They are often accompanied by a mass and it's being distorted because of that mass pushing/pulling the tissue out of it's normal place. Sounds like they want to maybe just do more pictures from different angles to better see the areas. Sometimes on further imaging they won't even see those distortions, if it's just from an overlap or simple causes like that.

Cysts and calcifications are very common, I myself always have both, they typically only worry about calcifications when it's a bunch of tiny ones near each other.

Dense breasts cause more shadowing on sonogram, so it sounds like they were having trouble seeing areas clearly because of this. When I had mine done last month, they had the same trouble and even things like ligaments cause areas of shadowing that can make some spots hard for them to view. The possible hypochoic area with questionable internal
calcifications means it's a darker area with calcifications in it. It sounds like they want to check it out because of the calcifications being clustered in the one area, this can sometimes signal an area of concern or an area they might want to keep an eye on down the road. It could just be a cyst or fibroadenoma which are both benign, so while there is always a chance that something suspicious can be something malignant there is a higher probability of it being something benign. The possible irregular hypoechoic area is once again a darker area but irregular just means the shape of it. Same as before, it can easily be a cyst, fibrous tissue, inflammation, all kinds of benign things.

Since all these things they are mentioning are just stated as possible and can very easily be related to the shadowing issue making it hard for them to see. As well as that they can also all be from simple, common things like cysts and such I personally wouldn't be too concerned about it yet. If they do the additional images and are still wanting more after that, like biopsy, I would be more concerned at that point... even though it could still be nothing even at that point.

I hope some of that helps explain some of it better and maybe ease your mind as you wait for more info/testing/etc.

Some of the terms I am familiar with, as I am actually dealing with some if it myself right now. I had a regular screening mammo early Oct and they found a possible architectural distortion in right breast with no sign of associated mass. That's the one that had a lump which turned out to be breast cancer back in 23'. Since then the lump shrank away from treatment, to where it was no longer palpable and didn't show on images. My mammo from last summer showed no sign of it. Anyway, they called me back for diagnostic mammo and ultrasound which confirmed the architectural distortion but still showed no cause for it. So I have to have biopsy in a few days of the area to see if the cancer is growing back or something new or maybe just fibrous tissue.

As they might have already mentioned before to you that your breast tissue is dense, which makes it harder for mammograms to always see things clearly. I have the same issue and they tend to want to do follow up imaging with diagnostic mammogram or sonogram in hopes to see better. My understanding is that MRI is actually the best imaging for dense breasts, I don't know why they don't just do that instead for women who they already know have dense breasts.

The distortions they mentioned, means there is a pull of tissue to one area. Sometimes this can just appear that way from an overlap of tissue when they took the images. It can also be from scar tissue from previous things like biopsy, surgery or trauma. They did mention that there was no obvious masses associated with them that seemed to be causing the pull so that's good. They are often accompanied by a mass and it's being distorted because of that mass pushing/pulling the tissue out of it's normal place. Sounds like they want to maybe just do more pictures from different angles to better see the areas. Sometimes on further imaging they won't even see those distortions, if it's just from an overlap or simple causes like that.

Cysts and calcifications are very common, I myself always have both, they typically only worry about calcifications when it's a bunch of tiny ones near each other.

Dense breasts cause more shadowing on sonogram, so it sounds like they were having trouble seeing areas clearly because of this. When I had mine done last month, they had the same trouble and even things like ligaments cause areas of shadowing that can make some spots hard for them to view. The possible hypochoic area with questionable internal
calcifications means it's a darker area with calcifications in it. It sounds like they want to check it out because of the calcifications being clustered in the one area, this can sometimes signal an area of concern or an area they might want to keep an eye on down the road. It could just be a cyst or fibroadenoma which are both benign, so while there is always a chance that something suspicious can be something malignant there is a higher probability of it being something benign. The possible irregular hypoechoic area is once again a darker area but irregular just means the shape of it. Same as before, it can easily be a cyst, fibrous tissue, inflammation, all kinds of benign things.

Since all these things they are mentioning are just stated as possible and can very easily be related to the shadowing issue making it hard for them to see. As well as that they can also all be from simple, common things like cysts and such I personally wouldn't be too concerned about it yet. If they do the additional images and are still wanting more after that, like biopsy, I would be more concerned at that point... even though it could still be nothing even at that point.

I hope some of that helps explain some of it better and maybe ease your mind as you wait for more info/testing/etc.

@coco46 please let me the results of your biopsy. I will be thinking about you and sending tons of positive energy!

@raffi Thank you, I will. I go tomorrow morning for the biopsy, they said it's usually about 3-5 days for results.

Sill no call back for what they want to do next for your imaging?