Biopsy under lumpectomy scar - fat necrosis?

Have I got breast cancer? Appointments and waiting for test results
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Morning ladies!

A little brain dump from me to get Thursday started and wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar?

I’m starting adjuvant chemo tomorrow for a stage 1, grade 3 TNBC, which was removed with clear margins and nodes this past December, however I’ve been thrown a nice little curveball in the meantime as I visited the breast clinic yesterday due to the tissue under my lumpectomy scar feeling quite lumpy and ended up having another biopsy.

The ultrasound image showed three round dark holes all in a line along the length of my scar - it looked like a string of beads! - and the radiologist said she thinks it could be fat necrosis. She also said it would be very unusual for this to be a local recurrence in my case, however has taken some samples for testing to be sure.

Results next week so not too long to wait, but feeling that nervous “what if” niggling in my mind.

On the bright side, an area of concern in the other breast showed to be just hard breast tissue combined with a 3cm cyst, which is now extinct.

What a rollercoaster!

All the best to everyone. x

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Fat necrosis is incredibly common after a lumpectomy because the surgery disrupts the blood supply to the fatty tissue. Those “round dark holes” on the ultrasound are often oil cysts that form during the healing process. It’s good they’re biopsy-ing it to be 100% sure before you start chemo, but fat necrosis is a very likely culprit.

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Thank you @lydi09!

She did try aspirating them and got out a tiny bit of this creamy yellowish-white stuff (lovely!) but nothing beyond that. She said it could just be too thick to come up so fingers crossed that’s actually the case.

The good news is that my oncologist has today confirmed this won’t delay chemo so all good to go tomorrow.

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