Diabetes Can Cause Breast Lumps
posted 10/30/03
FINDING A LUMP in your breast can be terrifying and your first thought may be that it is Cancer! Did you know that diabetes could be the cause?

But breast lumps have many causes. One surprising cause that’s little known—even among doctors—is diabetes and it is harmless.

Diabetes can cause dense fibrous lumps in the breasts. This condition is called “scierosing lymphocytic lobulitis” or “diabetic mastopa-thy. It usually occurs in people who have an autoimmune disease (one in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues).

The typical person with diabetic mastopathy is a pre-menopausal woman with type 1 and complications. However; men can get mastopathy, too. So can people wit.h type 2 diabetes and people without any known autoimmune condition.

A person with diabetic masto-pathy has one or more hard lumps in one or both breasts. The lumps are not tender and tend to be irregularly shaped.

If you find a new lump in your breast, you should see a doctor right away. Don’t assume the lump is diabetic mastopathy, even if you have had diabetic mastopathy before. Cancer can also start as a hard lump. so each new lump requires testing.

The first test would be a mam-mogram or an ultrasound scan. If your doctor can’t make a diagno-sis after that, tissue needs to be examined under the microscope. Sometimes, cells and fluid can be removed from the lump with a fine needle. But it can be diffi-cult to pierce the dense, scarlike tissue of a diabetic mastopathy lump with a needle. So the doctor may need to surgically remove part or all of the lump and examine it in the lab to make a diagnosis. After a lump is removed, it often comes back. The number and size of lumps tends to increase as people get older

Diabetic mastopathy lumps are harmless. They do not turn into cancer or increase cancer risk.. However, lumps can be uncomfortable if several occur in one breast. In that case, the lumps may be removed. You should know about diab-etic mastopathy because many doctors don’t. The disease was newly discovered in 1984 and is uncommon. In a case reported in Diabetes Care in 1998, surgeons removed both of a woman’s breasts because cancer was susp-ected; the woman turned out to have diabetic mastopathy. If you have type 1 diabetes and develop a breast lump, ask your doctor whether diabetic mastopathy might be the cause.

Source: Diabetes In Control.com.

October News Article Index