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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staff
Surgery to remove a fibroadenoma
A fibroadenoma, once it's identified, can continue to grow and may change the shape of your breast. Your doctor might recommend surgery to remove the fibroadenoma if one of your tests — the clinical breast exam, an imaging test or a biopsy — is abnormal. You may also consider surgical removal if leaving the fibroadenoma in place makes you anxious.
The procedure to remove a fibroadenoma is called a lumpectomy or excisional biopsy. The surgery may be performed using local or general anesthesia. A surgeon makes an incision in your breast and removes the breast lump plus some surrounding breast tissue. The tissue sample is then sent to a lab for analysis to confirm that the breast lump is a fibroadenoma and not breast cancer.
After a fibroadenoma is removed, it's possible that one or more new fibroadenomas may develop. You may need another surgery to remove new fibroadenomas.
When surgery isn't needed
If your doctor is reasonably certain that your breast lump is a fibroadenoma and not breast cancer — based on the results of the clinical breast exam, imaging test or biopsy — surgery may be unnecessary.
For younger women — those who most commonly develop fibroadenomas — surgery to remove the breast mass might distort the shape and texture of the breast and leave scar tissue that complicates future breast exams. In older women — usually past their 30s — fibroadenomas may stop growing or even shrink on their own.
If you choose not to have a fibroadenoma removed, continued monitoring is important to make sure it doesn't grow larger. At any time that you become overly anxious about the fibroadenoma, you can reconsider surgery.
- American Cancer Society. Non-Cancerous Breast Conditions. Accessed May 18, 2009.
- Giuliano AE. Breast Disorders (Chapter). In: McPhee SJ, et al, eds. Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2009, Forty-Eighth Edition. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies. 20009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=8538. Accessed May 18, 2009.
- Sabel MS. Overview of benign breast disease. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 18, 2009.
- National Cancer Institute. Understanding Breast Changes: A Health Guide For Women. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understanding-breast-changes. Accessed May 18, 20009.
- Fletcher SW et al. Primary care evaluation of breast lumps in adult women, http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 18, 2009.
- Courtillot C, et al. Benign breast diseases. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia. 2005; 10:325-335.
- Harris JR et al. Diseases of the breast. Philadelphia, Pa.:Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2004, p. 45-47.
