Hi cassie,
You are correct that the usual presentation of breast cancer is a lump. In the absence of a lump, there are two scenarios that I could think of.
The first scenario is that your mom was diagnosed with in-situ carcinoma. This means there is a potential malignancy. There are two basic features of cancer. The first is the capacity to proliferate without limit. The second is the capacity to invade and metastasize. In-situ carcinoma satisfy the first criteria regarding the proliferation, but it has not showed signs of invasion. The prognosis of such cases are generally good, with removal, there is an expected survival approaching 100%. If there is more than one focus, her doctor would likely discuss options of reducing risk for subsequent invasive breast cancer (The doctor would also estimate other risk factors beside this finding). These options would be hormonal in nature, from medications that counteract hormones that promote breast proliferation to surgeries involving the ovaries or breasts.
The second scenario involves rare presentations of a certain variety of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer may present without a lump, and tends to spread rapidly. Most of these cases present with fairly extensive disease, while there is no definite lump, there are usually observable changes in the skin overlying the breast and the breast architecture. If what your mother had was simply, isolated breast cancer tissue – inflammatory cancer is pretty unlikely.
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