Breast cancer echocardiography or ultrasound

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Soroush Seifirad, M.D.[2] Mirdula Sharma, MBBS [3]; Ammu Susheela, M.D. [4]

Overview

Breast ultrasound may be helpful in the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Findings on ultrasound

Breast ultrasound is not as sensitive as mammography in diagnosing breast cancer. It may be used to:

• Examine a breast lump or abnormality found during a clinical breast examination or mammogram
• Determine if a breast lump is a solid tumor or a fluid-filled cyst (sac in the body that is usually filled with fluid or semi-solid material)
• Find an abnormal area for a biopsy
• The addition of ultrasound decreases the false negative rate of diagnostic mammography, but we should keep in mind that a negative ultrasound and mammography does not exclude the presence of breast cancer.
• Color Doppler ultrasound:
• May aid in the assessment of breast masses
• The absence of flow on Doppler study does not exclude the possibility of malignancy.

Liver Ultrasound

If the blood chemistry tests show increased levels of liver enzymes, a liver ultrasound may be done to check if cancer has spread to the liver (liver metastases).

Herceptin (trastuzumab) induced heart failure

• Trastuzumab is a HER2 receptor blocker, which is used to treat HER2 positive breast cancer.
• It has been shown that heart failure is prevalent in women being treated with this novel treatment.
• According to a small study 58% of women treated with Herceptin for three months, showed pieces of evidence of loss of heart function. (Ref)
• As a potentially serious side effect of this novel treatment serial Echocardiography is recommended in all patients treated with trastuzumab.