A benign breast lump, but it can be worrying

Breast adenoma is a lesion consisting of lactation glands located in a pocket, giving it a special firmness. Breast fibroadenoma is very common and common, and can occur during emotional trauma, local trauma, or even during a hormonal imbalance between progesterone and estrogen secreted by the breast, and all women remain stable. The age at which fibroadenoma occurs is between 15 and 35 years.

Fibroadenoma appears as a small swelling that the patient feels when palpating her breast, and it is very close to the skin, and sometimes deeper.

This result raises some surprise and concern at times, but it is a relatively indolent and flexible benign tumor that does not adhere to the surrounding area and does not distort the surface of the breast. Clinical examination followed by mammography and ultrasound provide formal evidence, leading to the removal of the hollow cyst in additional examinations, and other sometimes calcified tumors that can indicate more worrisome tissue. In some relatively rare cases, a fibroadenoma can become large, sometimes the size of a lemon!

Obviously, this type of fibroadenoma requires surgery to remove it. In practice, this is very easy, because the fibroadenoma is surrounded by a membrane that allows it to divide without causing too much damage to the surrounding tissue.

The best test is to perform a biopsy that removes a small portion of the lesion so it can be examined histologically. Thus, this examination provides evidence of the safety of this small tumor, which can reach the size of a cherry – or even an apricot!

In some cases, there may be multiple fibroadenomas in the mammary gland parenchyma. Not all of them are necessarily obvious, and only ultrasound and radiological examination will reveal them.

To give you an idea of ​​how a fibroadenoma is built, imagine the leaves of a tree which, instead of growing nobly in all directions, are wrapped in a plastic cloth in which all the leaves and all the branches are condensed. You will thus understand the mechanism of fibroadenoma formation.

Can fibroadenoma disappear without surgery?

The answer is yes! This happens often. Fibroadenoma can grow at certain times due to unexpected stress or after an unexpected hormonal surge. Sometimes, some patients describe the divine disappearance of the fibroadenoma becoming imperceptible and barely visible on X-ray, which of course brings great relief to anxious patients.

In some cases, I have observed patients long after the fibroadenoma had disappeared, who developed the same symptoms again, even several years later.

Other patients have many small, diffuse fibroadenomas, the removal of which is not very convenient surgically. In these cases, it is recommended instead to use hormonal therapy, which has a reasonable chance of success in these special cases of small lesions.

The pictures attached to this file show you a fibroadenoma the size of half an apricot in contact with the silicone gel prosthetic breast shell. This fibroadenoma likely caused a fibrous reaction throughout the prosthesis.

In these cases, if there is no indication to wait for the fibroadenoma to disappear by hormonal therapy, generally or by applying a topically applied percutaneous hormonal gel, exploratory intervention is appropriate and necessary. The problem then becomes knowing where to place the scar so that it is as inconspicuous as possible. In some cases, we have to make a scar directly over the obvious fibroadenoma. Once removed, the fibroadenoma must be analyzed to ensure its safety.

The ideal solution is a clinical examination repeated by your gynecologist, and it is also possible to perform self-palpation by a knowledgeable patient, but it has the potential for concern because the lesion always develops very slowly according to the patient’s wishes… X-rays are also sufficient to evaluate the development of this Fibroids, without it being necessary to undergo a CT scan or MRI, to avoid exposure to too many X-rays.

Is it necessary to undergo surgery for a benign fibroadenoma in the breast?

impossible ! Just monitor them regularly. Many patients have had fibroadenomas since adolescence, and their entire reproductive life will be marked by the appearance and disappearance of these small, completely benign breast tumors.

Only when there is significant psychological distress is it appropriate to begin surgical exploration in patients who may experience fear of cancerous change due to the presence of breast cancer in their family.

The base is actually a benign breast adenoma.

Are there any options other than surgery to treat breast fibroadenoma?

Some medical teams have suggested performing targeted cryotherapy after biopsy verifies that it is indeed a benign fibroadenoma. Cryotherapy consists of freezing the lesion with a transdermal injection that causes a drop in temperature to minus 180 degrees, encapsulating the lesion with almost no visible scar. But other teams prefer to perform a small procedure with a short scar so that they can analyze the entire lesion once it is removed.