Mammogram recall?

Question

A relation of mine has just had a mammograme two weeks ago,and today she had a recall letter to have it reapeted.Have any of you had this ,and if so what was the outcome? Thanks in adcance.

Answer 1

There are a few reasons why a woman would be called back for more images after a mammogram. Vary rarely, the images are of poor quality or have an artifact on them. This doesn't happen often because the mammographer checks her images before she lets the patient leave. Occasionally, the mammographer will miss something that the radiologist catches.

More often, there is an area of the image that needs further evaluation. This could be because the patient has dense breast tissue. Dense tissue appears white on the x-ray film....and so do all signs of breast cancer (both masses/lumps or calcifications). You cannot see white pathology through white, dense tissue. Sometimes, compression views are needed in these cases, just to ensure nothing is "hiding" behind that white tissue.

Other times, the radiologist sees a mass or calcifications. Many masses and different types calcifications are benign. There are special views we can take (magnification views) which will show those exact areas better. In the case of microcalcifications, these images will show the edges of the calcifications in more detail, so the radiologist can determine which type they are. In the far majority of cases, the radiologist will determine they are benign....not cancer. Even after these special views, a radiologist might ask for a breast ultrasound, and maybe even a biopsy. Even if your relative goes as far as a biopsy, around 85% of these are benign.

So, it is not a bad sign to be called back for more images. It probably happens to about 1 in 10 women after their screening mammogram. Best wishes.......

Answer 2

From my understanding Doctors are trying to get more careful about this.

An example: A relative of mine about a 1.5 years ago had a mammogram, 2 weeks later she got the results. EVERYTHING was normal!!! Turns out she has a extremely deadly fast spreading form of breast cancer. She had tumors as well as inflammatory breast cancer.

The doctors said her skin and cell tissue was too dense to for the mammogram to scan. They told her that typically when that happens they send out a letter to have the scan re-done and typically go with another type like CT or MRI, I can't remember

Hope this helps

Answer 3

It could be there was bluring, the tissue was too dense and so not clearly differentiated or there could be "something" that they want a clearer view of to identify.

Basically, the initial mammogram was inconclusive.

If cancer was likely, they would probably be scheduling an ultrasound, biopsy or both as well.

Answer 4

It could be that the breast tissue was dense and it was inconclusive or maybe they wanted to get more close up views of a lump with special smaller mammography paddles? I have had the smaller paddles done. They may want to do ultrasound on it also.