Adriana Mangus, thank you for your post above about my story. I'm so glad that God has protected me and given me the precious time he has on earth, despite my delayed diagnosis. You see, I had a negative ultrasound, mammogram, so called negative breast exam and so called benign needle biopsy. After my misdiagnosis, I learned that my needle biopsy was misread as benign when it was cancerous. Additionally, probably my breast ultrasound and physical breast exam were misread as normal when they were suspicous and positive for cancer too. My surgeon made horrible mistakes and should have done a core or excisional biopsy, as they are more reliable than a fine needle aspirate biopsy.
I would tell your friend to get a second surgical opinion and at least two pathology opinions on any biopsies as soon as possible. You may want to let her know that core and excisional biopsies are much more reliable than fine needle aspirate biopies. However, no biopsy is reliable if the person getting the specimen does not get tissue from the lump and the pathologist is unable to examine tissue taken from the lump itself. Furthermore, not only do sampling errors occur, but pathologists can and do misread properly sampled breast biopsy slides.
While it MAY not be wrong for a doctor to suggest that a lump be followed for a short time to see if it resolves, if a lump persists, it should be removed, or at the very least have a repeat biopsy. Needle biopsies are good, but one always has the option to demand that the mass be removed, which in my opinion ,after being screwed, is the safest path.
You may also referr your friend to this website:
http://www.2minutebreastexam.com/true-stories/
Give my story too to your friend:
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