If any lumps are found during an examination and screening, your doctor will need to do additional tests. At this point, you should remember that only about 20 percent of biopsied breast lumps are cancerous. Even malignant masses, when diagnosed early, respond very favorably to treatment. If surgery is required, often removal of the lump and a small amount of surrounding tissue is all that's necessary. And, most women treated for early breast cancer do not experience a recurrence.

The first step will probably be a diagnostic mammogram to assess the mass. If this raises any suspicion of breast cancer, your physician may recommend one or more of these additional diagnostic tests:

Ultrasound sends high-frequency sound waves into the breast, then converts the echoes from those waves into an image of the breast's interior. Ultrasound is an accurate way of distinguishing between solid and fluid-filled lumps; but it cannot detect small calcium deposits that may indicate cancer, and it does not identify small tumors. If your doctor discovers a suspicious lump during pregnancy, ultrasound may be preferable to a mammogram for the sake of the baby.

Needle aspiration determines whether a lump is solid or fluid-filled. If the lump is a cyst, the doctor drains the fluid and sends it to a laboratory to check for the presence of cancer cells. The procedure is generally done in a physician's office or clinic using a local anesthetic, and further treatment is rarely needed.

Needle core biopsy (also called stereotactic breast biopsy) is used to remove a core of tissue from a solid lump. Using a computerized x-ray technique, your doctor will guide a needle into the suspicious breast area to obtain a sample for microscopic examination. The procedure uses a local anesthetic, leaves no scar and is considered highly accurate. More and more physicians are choosing this technique to confirm a diagnosis and develop a treatment plan.

Surgical biopsy is still the predominant method of confirming a suspicion of cancer. After removing the breast lump surgically, your doctor will have the tissue examined under a microscope. You can usually have this procedure done in a walk-in care center under local or general anesthesia and go home the same day.