Breast calcification, benign dx. changing to malignant with time?

chrisoc@westnet.com · medicine forum beginner Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 2

About 2.5 years ago I had a 12-core biopsy at Beth Israel's
Comprehensive Breast Center, NYC.
I had microcalcifications which were suspicious and in a 3-hr
"Mammotome" procedure they got a lot of samples including the
calcifications, leaving a tiny radiographic marker in place which is
customary.
The path lab report was all benign: "stromal sclerosis, ductal
ectasia, nonproliferative fibrocystic changes".
They Xrayed each core before taking the next one to be sure they got
the crystals and adjacent tissue.
I was impressed with the care taken and delighted with
the results, naturally. I had 6 month and 12 month followup mammos,
all negative, and began to be followed locally in my town for
radiology screenings.

Now I have been referred for spot views and increased mag views of
that area again, near the marker, by my local suburban radiology
group.
The whole thing could be starting over and I really dread this. There
are tissue changes that were noted last week, more microcalcifications.
It was hard to go through, the first time. We live about 2 hrs from
NYC but travel is the least of it.

I want to find out some statistics to prepare myself with. How often
does a case of benign processes with microcalcifications,
well-sampled and from an excellent lab, turn out 3-5 years later to
be a carcinoma ... in some kind of biological progression?

I've been on Actonel and lots of oral calcium and I cannot help but
think this is a factor too. I hope someone can point me to an article
discussing this subject. I have a few days to get educated and there
are always papers coming out with followup studies etc. Should I sign
up for a medical lit search engine? I'm able to understand the
terminology and statistics. I am not asking others to do this lookup
for me.

Chris

pmoran@bordernet.com.au · medicine forum beginner Joined: 28 May 2006 Posts: 35

<chrisoc@westnet.com> wrote in message
news:1149002856.381186.264790@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Bob Allison · medicine forum beginner Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 9

In article <1149002856.381186.264790@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
chrisoc@westnet.com wrote:

chrisoc@westnet.com · medicine forum beginner Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 2

Turns out that the radiology and breast MDs, after re-imaging, are
finding more microcalcifications near the old biopsy -- they want to be
sure we don't FAIL to examine them in more detail just because the
previous biopsy was neg. for carcinoma. It could be "de novo", not
a progression. Looks like a new cluster in some views.
So we will do more radiography in a few months.
Let ya know, and thanks for the good replies. The first path results
were not precancerous, as the lit. (and you all) say. Doesn't mean
you cannot have a new problem.

Chris

Google