Benign Breast Lesions

Breast cancer is one of the most terrifying and devastating of diseases for women and with good reason. It takes a heavy toll not only on the physical health of the patient, but on the emotional well being as well. Physicians suggest that patients undergo routine breast examination to detect any abnormal changes as early as possible, so that if the cell changes are related to cancer, treatment can start as early as possible. With the right treatment at the right time, this disease can be completely cured.

All women are advised to routinely self examine their breasts to check if they feel anything abnormal. If there are suspicious lumps, then a mammography may be the required to identify if they are cancerous. Even if the lumps in the breast are not cancerous, they sometimes need to be removed. Women who develop benign lumps or lesions in the breasts are often advised to go for a breast biopsy. The biopsy result may turn out to be not cancerous at all. But that does not necessarily mean that everything is perfectly alright. It pays to be cautious in this situation, although outright panic may be premature.

A lot of research is being conducted on the nature of benign breast lesions found in women. Are they really anything to worry about? Research findings seem to suggest that the degree of risk that is generally association with a lesion on the breast, though it may be benign, is related to the cellular structure of the lesion itself (this can be studied by putting the tissue under the microscope). The family history of the woman, that is whether any close relative in the family had breast cancer or the patient herself had breast cancer before, and the age at which the lesion was found and the was biopsy done also play a major part in the amount of risk that is associated with benign breast lesions.

Nowadays there is a lot of awareness about breast cancer and most women follow up their breast self examination with a routine visit to the clinic and an annual mammogram. Since the number of women undergoing mammogram screening has increased, so has the number of abnormalities that are spotted during the mammograms. Every year several thousands of women undergo a breast biopsy to rule out the possibility of cancer in a suspicious breast lump or lesion.

Benign breast lesions may indicate that the woman has a higher chance of developing breast cancer, so it is advisable that in future regular and more frequent screening is done to detect breast cancer as early as possible.