It's Not Cancer - Benign Breast Conditions That Are Not Breast Cancer

Most Lumps are Not Breast Cancer

Your breasts will have normal, healthy changes during your lifetime. But how are you to know if it is harmless or malignant? Fortunately, most people have benign (non-cancerous) breast conditions at some point in their life. Women will experience menstrual-related breast changes as they cycle through each month -– swelling, tenderness, some nipple discharge, and perhaps transient pain. Doing your monthly breast self-exam will help you get familiar with the normal texture of your breasts, and alert you when something changes.

Here are several conditions that are not breast cancer, but might be felt or seen during a regular breast exam:

Breast Pain

• Mastalgia (cyclical and non-cyclical breast pain)

Benign Breast Lumps

• Breast Cysts (fluid-filled sacs)
• Fibroadenomas (glandular and fibrous breast tissue)
• Fat Necrosis (dead fat resulting from trauma to the breast)
• Breast Hematomas (blood-filled swelling)
• Adenosis (enlarged breast lobules)
• Ductal Hyperplasia (rapidly growing ductal cells)

Change in Breast Texture

• Fibrocystic Breast Changes (cyclical hormonal fluctuations)

Breast Infections and Inflammations

• Mastitis (benign breast infection -- may occur as a result of breastfeeding)
• Chronic Subareolar Abcesses (infection near the nipple)

Hard Breast Tissue, Trauma, or Silicone

• Pseudolumps (scar tissue, bruises, silicone chunks)

Nipple Changes

• Benign Nipple Discharge (fluid leaking from the nipple)
• Nipple Shape Changes (pulling in, tilting to one side)
• Mammary Duct Ectasia (swollen or clogged milk ducts)
• Intraductal Papillomas (tiny wart-like growth puncturing the duct)

If you have trouble identifying a particular lump or other breast condition, always get your doctor or nurse to do a clinical breast exam, just to be sure. If you have any doubt as to the nature of the condition, a mammogram or ultrasound can help make a clearer diagnosis. And if doubt still remains, a needle biopsy can be done, or nipple discharge can be sampled, and tests will reveal the actual problem.