Do I Need An Ultrasound?

Transcript

Sometimes when you get an abnormal mammogram and there’s a mass there, a radiologist may go ahead at that time and do an ultrasound of your underarm or your lymph nodes. And that’s where cancer will spread. Especially if they see a large abnormal appearing mass that they’re almost certain is breast cancer, they may go ahead and do a reflex and look at the ultrasound to make sure that there’s nothing there. Sometimes they don’t always have that this mass or lesion was seen only on screening mammograms. Some of your surgeons or some of the radiologists will order an ultrasound once we have the diagnosis of breast cancer to do an evaluation of what we call the axilla or the underarm where breast cancer may spread to your lymph nodes. We usually decide that on the size of your tumor.

Tumors that are larger have a more risk of going to lymph node metastasis, or spread to the lymph nodes. And if your surgeon or your breast surgeon found something abnormal on your clinical exam, they may want to have an ultrasound done. An ultrasound is not always standard, there are particular reasons why they will do that, whether it’s on the clinical exam or high suspicion and move on to an ultrasound, but not everyone gets an ultrasound.

Key Takeaways

1. Sometimes when an abnormal mass is found, a radiologist may do an ultrasound of your underarm or your lymph nodes where it might spread.

2. If the mass or lesion isn’t on a mammogram, you may have an ultrasound ordered.

3. An ultrasound is not always standard, there are particular reasons why they will do that including if the tumor is large or has spread.