If You Find a Lump in Your Breast, Here’s What To Do Next

You might know how to check yourself for breast lumps, but do you know what to do if you find one? Janice Shen, MD, a breast medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) Commack offers these recommendations.

First, don’t panic if you find a lump or change in your breast.

It’s natural to worry if you feel something new in your breast. But Dr. Shen says, “It’s extremely common for women of all ages to find lumps and bumps in their breasts. The majority will turn out to be benign.”

Some, like fibroadenomas, are harmless clumps of breast tissue. Some, like cysts, are related to hormones and can appear during a woman’s menstrual cycle, during pregnancy, or when she’s breastfeeding.

It’s not possible to determine whether a lump is cancerous or noncancerous based on how it feels. Not all breast lumps feel the same.

• Some breast lumps are hard. Some are soft.
• Some are painful. Some don’t hurt at all.
• Some lumps in your breast are mobile, meaning you can move them with your finger, while some may feel fixed.
• Sometimes lumps are in the armpit or above the breast mound.
• The size of a lump does not necessarily indicate it is cancer.

If you find a lump, see your doctor for a breast physical exam.

Dr. Shen stresses the importance of getting a good physical exam from either your primary doctor or gynecologist. That means your doctor should do more than just feel the lump in your breast. “Make sure they do a thorough exam of the breast, including feeling around the collarbone and underneath the armpit,” she says. Your doctor should also examine your skin and nipples to look for any changes and compare your breasts side by side to look for any differences between them.

During your exam, you’ll also want to give your doctor some additional details, including:

• When and how you found the lump.
• If you’ve noticed any new nipple discharge (fluid), or nipple inversion (pointing inward instead of sticking out).
• If you’ve noticed any new skin changes on the breast, such as dimpling (like the texture of an orange) or puckering of the skin with or without an associated rash.
• If you have ever had an injury to your breast.
• What hormones, medications, or supplements you take.
• Your family’s history of breast cancer or other cancers.

Ask your doctor about breast imaging, like a mammogram.

“Based on your physical exam, age, and your risk of breast cancer, your doctor will help determine if breast imaging may be appropriate for you,” Dr. Shen says. Usually, screening starts with a mammogram. If the mammogram is inconclusive, your doctor may call you back for more imaging. But Dr. Shen notes that this happens frequently and is not necessarily an indication that anything is wrong.

If your doctor wants a closer look at something — or if you have dense breasts, which makes it difficult to see breast tissue on a mammogram — you might also get an ultrasound or MRI. People with a higher risk of breast cancer than the general population, plus a strong family history of breast cancer, should ask their doctor about getting an MRI.

Trust your doctor’s recommendation on a biopsy.

In many cases, doctors can tell from a mammogram that a breast lump appears benign. Sometimes, though, doctors may need to do a biopsy to confirm that a lump is benign. A biopsy is usually performed by a radiologist, who will insert a needle into the breast to take a sample of the lump’s cells. You will be awake for the biopsy, but you will be given medications to decrease any discomfort or pain.

Being anxious and worried about having a breast biopsy is entirely understandable. Most times, biopsies do not show cancer. “The vast majority of the time we biopsy a lump in the breast, it’s not breast cancer,” Dr. Shen says. “We recognize the anxiety that comes with a biopsy. Most of the time, we are doing one just to make sure we’re absolutely positive, above and beyond, that we’re not missing any cancer.”

How To Do a Self-Breast Exam

Dr. Shen recommends that women check their breasts for any changes once a month. She suggests the first of the month so it’s easy to remember, or right after completing a menstrual cycle (after your period ends) when breasts are less likely to be tender and lumpy.

“It is important for women to get a baseline sense of how their breasts look and feel on a monthly basis so that any new changes are easier to detect,” she says. However, she emphasizes that self-exams do not replace the need for routine breast cancer screenings with a healthcare professional.

Learn how to perform a self-breast exam.

What if a lump is breast cancer?

“In the unlikely event that a breast lump turns out to be cancer, MSK is a leader in caring for people with all forms of the disease,” Dr. Shen says.

Recognizing that breast cancer isn’t one-size-fits-all, MSK has special programs in place for treating people with unique subsets of the disease, including inflammatory breast cancer, rare breast cancers, male breast cancer, and breast cancers in young women.

MSK specialists also understand that healthcare goes beyond medicine and are here to support your mental, social, and emotional health. Dr. Shen says, “We have a team of experts ready to assist and help you along the way.”