Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 3/10/2011

Question
I asked a question back in December, maybe January, but now a decision is to be made...I trust my BS, and will discuss all this with him, but I would appreciate another pair of ears and another professional thought process to bounce off of...Thank you in advance.

In summary, a nipple fluid smear with no cancer found, but atypical cells (no blood) in November—no mass found—follow up exams scheduled for June.

Skip to three weeks ago—expressed discharge has continued and BS wanted another smear done.  I expected to hear that atypical cells had disappeared and we’d wait until the follow up in June.

Got a letter from BS today—no atypical cells found, but blood found this time…I quote, “I think the recurrence of the drainage and the fact that we have had some atypical cells or blood cells probably is not significant, but I think if you were my wife I would probably advise you to get this excised, even though I doubt very, very seriously that this will be malignant.”  I'm not a worrier, but wondered if some of this was a way for him to calm my nerves?

Another piece of the message that I don’t understand is the comment, “…if you plan to excise it we would want to make sure it does not drain for a period of time before we do it.”  What might this mean?

I don't want unnecessary procedures, but want to take care of issues that need attention.

Thank again for your thoughts.

Answer
I agree with your doctor. Even if it is probable that there is no cancer there it is better to be safe than sorry later on. So I too think that this should be explored and removed to be on the safe side! We have no way of knowing if this is unnecessary or not in advance, so I think you should have it done. That sentence only means that for technical reasons they prefer to do it when no secretion is flowing out if possible.


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