How fast breast lump grow

We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Still, experts understand that some types of breast cancer tend to be more aggressive and fast moving, while other types typically move slower.

Your cancer team will determine how likely or fast your breast cancer may spread based on your breast cancer subtype, stage and individual factors. Although breast cancer experts can hypothesis and estimate the speed of cancer growth, every breast cancer is different and distinctive to that person. We can look at the subtype of breast cancer to perhaps get a better understanding if it was weeks vs.

Like any type of cancer, there are factors that can put you at higher risk. For breast cancer, these include things like smoking, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise and not performing monthly self-breast exams. All of these things can contribute to a stronger physical body and better mental attitude — both of which can have a positive impact on your breast cancer diagnosis. The biopsied cells are graded based on how similar or different they look compared to normal cells.

Staging assesses whether your breast cancer has spread, and if so, how far. Staging can give your healthcare team information to predict:. In addition to looking at the size and location of the tumor, doctors also consider whether the tumor tests positive for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, or HER2 proteins.

Stage 0 is considered non-invasive in situ breast cancer, with no evidence that the cancer or other abnormal cells has spread beyond the part of the breast where it began to grow, including to nearby lymph nodes.

Stages 1 to 3 generally describe breast cancer that may have spread to other parts of the breast and nearby lymph nodes, with stages increasing with the size of tumors and extent of spread. Breast cancer tumors can grow directly from breast tissue to other nearby locations, such as the chest wall or the skin of the breast. This is considered stage 3 breast cancer. Stage 4 is metastatic breast cancer MBC , meaning that cancer that originated in the breast has now spread to other parts of the body.

In stage 4 breast cancer, cancer cells can spread beyond the breasts by invading lymph nodes near the breast and traveling to other parts of the body via the lymphatic system. Cancer cells also can move through the bloodstream to inhabit other organs and regions of the body. The most common destinations for MBC or advanced breast cancer cells are the brain, bones, lungs, and liver.

The outcome for Stage 4 breast cancer that has metastasized, or spread to distant organs of the body, is considerably lower than for earlier stages, with a 28 percent 5-year survival rate.

However, with prompt diagnosis and proper treatment, both quality of life and longevity may be improved for those with stage 4 breast cancer. The symptoms of MBC can vary, depending on where the cancer has spread.

Treatment for stage 4 or metastatic breast cancer will depend on where it has spread. It will also vary depending on the following factors:. For those with stage 4 breast cancer, the primary treatments are systemic or drug therapies. These options include chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy, or some combination of the four. While there is no cure for MBC, the goal of these treatments is to shrink or slow tumor growth, improve quality of life, and help people with the condition live longer.

Chemotherapy may be used prior to breast cancer surgery to reduce tumor sizes, or it may be used to destroy any cancer cells remaining after surgery. In general, it is used to destroy or damage cancer cells as much as possible.

The type of chemotherapy used for stage 4 breast cancer will depend on various factors such as how fast the cancer is growing despite previous treatment, and if there is a lot of cancer in organs such as the liver and or lungs. Chemotherapy is often used in combination with targeted therapies, which are medications that specifically target cancer cells.

After stabilizing the patient with antibiotics, she underwent successful resection. Surgical margins were positive, and histopathology demonstrated bland spindle cells with stromal overgrowth.

Together with clinical and histopathological information, the patient was diagnosed with a phyllodes tumor. Differential diagnosis of rapidly growing breast masses is discussed, which are not uncommon occurrences in clinical medicine.

One etiology, phyllodes tumors, can grow into large, exophytic masses as described. Oncologic treatment is discussed, usually consisting of surgery with postoperative radiotherapy for high-risk features. The differential diagnosis of a rapidly growing breast mass is very important for not only oncologists, but any health care provider, owing to the relative ubiquity of the symptoms and need for further workup and treatment.

In this report, we describe the exceptional case of a woman who noticed a rapidly growing breast mass that became extremely large. We discuss the difficulties of diagnosis as well as differential diagnoses of which clinicians should be aware. A year-old woman with history of multiple psychiatric conditions including uncontrolled anxiety and depression presented to the intensive care unit with tachycardia and hypotension. She had initially felt a left breast mass five years ago but not sought medical attention, and the mass continued growing.

Over the past sixteen weeks, the mass had nearly tripled in size and started oozing purulent fluid. Visual inspection revealed a 36 cm mass composed of several different colored, shaped, and textured tissues. Fluid drainage and necrotic debris was present Fig. She received fluid boluses and vasopressors. With further workup including elevated lactic acid level and white blood cell count of Systemic staging using CT was negative. Gross appearance of the mass at presentation a , left panel , computed tomography image without contrast of patient at presentation showing large exophytic mass b , center panel , and postoperative appearance c , right panel.

Radical mastectomy was performed owing to intraoperative tumor involvement of the pectoralis and intercostal muscles. Owing to the emergent circumstances, large tumor size with necrosis, and no prior tissue diagnosis, nodal sampling was performed; lymph nodes were grossly nonenlarged. Owing to no clinical nodal disease as well as clinical suspicion for the aforementioned diagnoses, there was no indication for complete axillary dissection.

Postoperatively a clean base was present Fig. The mass was sent for histological analysis. Pathological diagnosis of the mass was difficult. The deep margin of the tumor was positive as well. Pathological analysis demonstrated negative markers for neurofibroma, epithelial including breast carcinomas, melanoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, fibrosarcoma, or synovial sarcoma.

Whereas the pathological diagnosis was initially an unspecified spindle cell neoplasm, adding together the clinical history and presentation, the patient was diagnosed with a phyllodes tumor.

Phyllodes tumors most often arise in patients in the 5 th decade of life and vastly more commonly in females [ 1 ]. They clinically present as a rapidly growing mass based in the breast, which is an important clue for diagnosis even if pathological diagnosis is inconclusive [ 2 ]. Spindle cellularity rules out fat necrosis and inflammatory breast carcinoma.

Though only one epithelial glandular component was seen, the complete absence of such is less common in phyllodes tumors; likely, mesenchymal components of the tumor can overgrow the glanduloepithelial components, making the latter rare to find [ 1 ]. Phyllodes tumors are often confused with soft tissue sarcomas as well, including fibrosarcoma, which can complicate diagnosis. However, phyllodes tumors are vastly more common than primary breast sarcomas, occurring around 5—10 times more commonly, and 20—40 times more than primary breast fibrosarcomas [ 3 ].