Karen Z. is concerned about a mother, recently weaned, whose baseline
mammagram revealed calcifications.  The breast specialists are talking
biopsy and there is fear of unnecessary proceedures being done.  As someone
who has seen several cases of young mothers fighting for their lives with
breast cancer, I support the idea of pursuing suspicious findings.  If the
concern is lack of skill of the local surgeons, or of the people reading the
radiology reports, you might want to suggest referral for second opinion
outside your area -- like at the nearest big cancer center.  It is perhaps
less impt. that the surgeons be bfg experts than that they be cancer
experts.  I think reading a mammagram of a young woman is challenging --
breasts are very dense and things hard to spot -- esp. in the recently
weaned woman.  It will be very reassuring to all of us when technology gets
better and we can visualize the breasts more accurately. Biopsy will, at
this point, give more information.  The pre-menopausal daughter of a dear 70
yr old friend of mine recently had a baseline mammagram which showed a
"dusting" of calcifications.  Biopsy revealed cancer in early stages.
Lumpectomy was performed last week with radiation started yesterday.
Barbara

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html