Ultrasound: Powerful tool in finding cancer in dense breast tissue

I’m here to tell you, ultrasound is your best and most certain weapon in the fight for an accurate diagnosis of breast cancer if you have dense breast tissue, as I did.

For years, I had struggled with painful mammograms that showed nothing. I have very dense, fibro-cystic breast tissue.

The mammogram that turned up ‘suspicious’ results, unfortunately was not followed up with an ultrasound here in Reno, Nevada. They totally mis-staged the cancer as Stage I.

When I got down to the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for a second opinion, the ultrasound presented a far different and more accurate picture. It was a 6 cm Lobular tumor and was Stage IIIa. The treatment for this would be entirely different. Had they treated for a Stage I cancer with immediate surgery (which is what they wanted to do) I wouldn’t be here today.

Here’s something else to remember, mammograms don’t depict or pick up lobular breast cancers very well at all. I had a Lobular breast cancer (they’re flat and not a ‘lump’). Ultrasound picks it up very well indeed.

In the right hands, and with a high level of experience like at UT MDACC, a radiologist (like Dr. Patrick Dempsey) can literally ‘see’ potential lesions, have a pathologist right there in the room who will do the Fine Needle Aspiration biopsy, put it under the microscope and within minutes you have an answer: Yes or No.

No waiting for an anxious tearful weekend to get a phone call. That’s sooooo old school.

Here are some sites where you can find out more about the use of ultrasound in finding lobular carcinomas:

The Use of Ultrasound in the diagnosis of ILC

Myth: Mammograms prevent breast cancer.

FALSE. Mammography is a screening test to detect cancer already present in the breast. It does not prevent cancer, nor will it definitively detect the disease.

The bottom line is mammography does not prevent breast cancer. Continuing with mammography screening is a personal choice, but it does not determine what causes breast cancer, nor will it cure the disease. Ultimately, resources must be devoted to finding effective preventions and treatments for breast cancer and tools that truly detect breast cancer at a time where an intervention will help.

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Reporter diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer

Mr. Maven came running into the other room, saying “Hey, come watch this thing about breast cancer. You might be interested.”

Yes, you could say so.

You see, Fox News reporter, Jennifer Griffin, was telling about her new battle beyond the war zones of the world - it was with Stage III, Triple Negative breast cancer. The deadliest kind.

That’s what I had.

Reporter battles deadliest breast cancer

I wish they had spent more time on what makes a breast cancer a Triple Negative, but perhaps that’s my job.

I was diagnosed in 2002, upon a second opinion examination at the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. In Reno, where I live and first got the news about having cancer, they’d told me that they’d caught it early, and it was very small.

Hardly the correct picture, hence the critical need for a second opinion.

My tumor, upon biopsy and examination was huge, more than six centimeters across. The cells, upon microscopic examination, were negative for HER 2 protein Receptor, so the targeted therapy of Herceptin would not be available to me.

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Myths about breast cancer: Self exams save lives.

Oh, how I wish this were true, but it simply isn’t. I practiced monthly breast self exams and didn’t even realize I had breast cancer, and advanced breast cancer at that. Furthermore, at my annual physical exam, my doctors’ fingers glided right over the tumor, to my other breast and got all concerned over a benign cyst there.

Yes, everybody was missing it. The mammograms had even missed it. You see, I had a lobular carcinoma, which isn’t a lump. Lobular breast cancer presents as a thickening of breast tissue, and in my case, was right behind the nipple. And it was large; 6+cm (more than two inches across) in size, and had already spread to my lymph nodes. I felt so guilty and stupid because I hadn’t found it in a BSE!

I can hear the anxious sucking in of breath out there as you read this.

Wait! Remember, I’m still sitting here, seven years later, writing this.

My point is two fold.

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