Breast Cancer Health Center

Breast Lumps: 7 Myths and Facts

About 40% of women will discover a breast lump at some point in their lives. Although a lump doesn't necessarily mean cancer, what women do immediately after that discovery can mean the difference between survival or not.

So what do you need to know if you find a breast lump? Four experts interviewed by WebMD help separate myths from facts.

Breast Cancer: Me & the Girls

When breast cancer hits home, it's personal. WebMD shares stories and advice from women who know what breast cancer is like firsthand.

• Zunilda Guzman, 39, had both breasts and ovaries removed after learning she had breast cancer and a high-risk gene.
  
• Pamela Cerceo, 51, had both breasts removed even though she didn’t have breast cancer.
  
• Diane Morgan, 71, offers advice on what friends should and shouldn't do when someone has breast cancer.
• Jenee Bobbora, 39, chose not to have breast reconstruction after her mastectomy.
  
• Tammy Joyner, 49, talks about telling her sons she had breast cancer.

Read more stories: 

• Mary Manasco, 59
• Jennifer Mukai, 43
• Erica Seymore, 34
• Ilene Smith, 49

 

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• 10 Mammogram Excuses Busted
  
• Expert QA: Getting the Best Treatment
• Health Check: Breast Cancer Treatment Options
  
• Expert QA: A Man's Guide to Breast Cancer
• Talk With Others About Breast Cancer

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1. A Breast Lump Is Almost Always Cancer

This is a myth, thankfully, but a widespread one, says Stephen Sener, MD, past president of the American Cancer Society and professor of surgery at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

"Every woman [with a breast lump] thinks it's cancer until proven otherwise," Sener says. "The older a woman is, the more petrified she is that she is the one in seven or eight to get breast cancer," says Sener, referring to a woman's lifetime risk of the cancer.

But some women shift  to denial, says Laura Kruper, MD, a breast cancer surgeon at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. They will think cancer can't possibly be happening to them, she says. "Or they will think they are too young."

The lump is more likely to be cancerous in older women who have gone through menopause than in younger women, says Susan Love, MD, president of the Susan Love Foundation, clinical professor of surgery at the University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, and author of Dr. Susan Love'sBreast Book.

When a lump turns out not to be cancer, what else might it be? It could be a cyst (a fluid-filled sac that can be drained), an abnormal noncancerous growth such as a fibroadenoma or, much less often, a blood clot that causes lumpiness. It could also be a "pseudo lump," caused by hormonal changes that isn't a lump at all, says Love.

Whatever the cause, it's important to get any lump evaluated. Sener recommends a physical examination, a mammogram, and perhaps an ultrasound. "Most of the time you have a reasonable idea what is happening after that," he says. Some women will need to get a biopsy.

2. Breast Cancer Is Always Accompanied by a Lump You Can Feel

Not necessarily, says Jennifer Eng-Wong, MD, a medical oncologist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C.

"Sometimes you pick up a cancer on a mammogram before you can feel [the lump] she says. That's the norm. "Most cancers are picked up on screening mammograms."

3. A Cancerous Lump Feels Different From a Benign Lump

Not always, says Eng-Wong. Cancerous lumps and noncancerous, or benign, lumps, can overlap. When a lump is cancer, she says, women often assume it will be a single lesion that feels hard and doesn't move around. That could be, she says, but a cancerous breast lump could also feel smooth and be mobile, she says.