What Does a Breast Cancer Lump Feel Like?
Key takeaways:
Breast cancer lumps can vary in size and shape. They may feel like hard, firm, or thickened areas within the breast tissue.
Breast cancer lumps are often painless, though this can vary from person to person.
If you notice a lump in your breast, you should reach out to your healthcare provider. It’s important to note that not all lumps are cancerous.
Medical experts are still debating whether regular breast self-exams are a good idea. But while the scientists discuss the details, one thing is clear: Every woman should know what is normal for her breasts and be aware of any changes. But what kind of changes are you looking for, exactly?
GoodRx offers information from doctors on symptoms of breast cancer and what to do if you notice them. But to get a more personal sense of what a lump feels like, GoodRx spoke to three breast cancer survivors about how they discovered their cancer and what exactly it felt like.
Different skin tones, different symptoms
When Laura Crandon got her mammogram, she thought she was in the clear. The doctor noted that she had “dense breasts,” but Laura wasn’t alarmed. That sounded normal enough. She only started to worry later when she was doing a breast self-exam in the shower and felt a lump below her armpit.
“I felt something that felt like a fingerling potato,” she recalls. “It was almost like a welt, but underneath the skin. And it moved around — it wasn’t hard and fixed like a rock, almost like scar tissue. It was on one side and not the other. It was asymmetrical. And that was a key to me that something wasn't quite right.”
She got out of the shower and felt the area again lying down. There was definitely something there, so she decided to call her OB-GYN. Her doctor examined her and sent her for further tests. She discovered she had breast cancer and began treatment.
Since her diagnosis, Laura has learned that she should have reacted differently to learning she had dense breasts.
“What I understand is that dense breasts means that radiologists can’t see. The analogy that I use is like a weather forecast,” she explains. Dense breasts prevent a doctor from spotting anything suspicious in a mammogram, the same way clouds can prevent you from seeing an airplane in the sky. The denser the breasts, the thicker the clouds.
“I was not referred for additional testing at that time,” Laura says. “I should have been. That’s one of the disparities that exist for women of color, is that we often are not referred to an ultrasound or a biopsy or an MRI like our white sisters are.” She advises women to ask how dense their breasts are and whether they need additional screening.
Laura went on to start Touch4Life, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing education about breast health for the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) population.
She stresses that women with darker complexions sometimes have different breast cancer symptoms.
“The instructions say you’re looking for a reddening of the area around the areola, but for melanated people like me, my areola is already dark. We should be talking about a darkening of the skin, like a hyperpigmentation, versus reddening, because that’s just not going to happen for us,” she says.
Because of these and other disparities, Black women have a 40% higher mortality rate from breast cancer than white women. That makes keeping a careful eye on any changes to their breasts even more important for women of color, Laura says.
It’s normal to be afraid
Michelle Seitzer, a Pennsylvania-based writer and entrepreneur, couldn’t have found her lump at a more stressful time. In March 2020, when the pandemic was raging, she felt something in her left breast. “It felt like a hardness in the tissue,” she remembers.
It wasn’t a time when anyone wanted to go to the doctor, so Michelle waited.
“My daughter has special needs, so with her being home, I obviously had a lot more to do to care for her. And so it was a very stressful time. I thought, ‘Well, maybe stress can cause changes in your body.’ I was in my early 40s, so I thought maybe this is perimenopause. So I let a couple of cycles of my period go by to see if it changed. And, well, it did, in that it got bigger,” she recalls. The lump also began to feel tender to the touch.
Eventually, that September, she went to get it checked out. It was breast cancer. Michelle doesn’t know whether her 6-month delay in seeking medical attention made any difference to her treatment, but she wants other women to know that it is normal to be afraid to see a doctor.
“I was scared that it was breast cancer. And so for some people, that might push them into action. For me, I actually was paralyzed by fear and didn't want to get it checked out, even though I knew I probably should. So, it really took a while for me to make the brave step of telling somebody,” she remembers.
If fear is preventing you from getting a lump looked at, Michelle suggests getting support.
“Do what you need to take that brave step,” she advises. Michelle credits a dear friend with holding her hand through the process of telling her husband and seeing a doctor. Having someone by your side can help make you brave, she says.
Don’t be shy about advocating for yourself
Pamela Grossman, a 56-year-old Brooklyn-based health journalist, was also in the shower when she discovered her lump back in 2007.
“I was washing my underarm area. I combine washing myself with feeling my breasts, my body: ‘What is going on? Is there something different?’ And I did feel a lump. I knew it was not a lump that I had been feeling for a long time before. It wasn’t familiar. It wasn’t tender to touch. It felt like two marbles,” she remembers.
Because of a history of cancer in her family, Pamela already had a gynecological oncologist. She contacted her and got a referral for a mammogram. Then more than 2 months went by trying to get an appointment.
“They just didn't have any openings,” she says.
At the time, Pamela took for granted that the hospital understood the seriousness of her situation. But looking back, she says she should have pushed harder for an appointment.
“If I could go back in time, I should have gone back to my doctor. I should have sent up more flares and been like, ‘Hey, I have a lump. I have a referral. I don’t have an appointment,’” she says.
Like Michelle, Pamela will never know if the delay made a difference to her treatment, but she suspects it must have.
“I don't remember feeling enlarged lymph nodes under my arm when I found the lump. But by the time I had my mammogram, I had a lymph node under my arm the size of an almond, and it was cancer. This lump seemed to come very suddenly,” she says.
That’s why she advises women not only to know their own bodies and what is normal for them, but also not to be shy if they find anything that worries them.
“If you’re getting blown off in terms of getting on it in a timely way, it’s not fair. It’s not the way it should be that it’s up to the patient to make sure that things move. But sometimes it can be. I wish that no patient ever had to be on the phone saying, ‘Hello, I need to schedule this biopsy. I need to schedule this screening.’ But sometimes we do,” she says.
What does the doctor say?
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, MD, MPH
Medical Editor
Many people find out they have breast cancer after noticing a change in their breasts, such as a lump, bump, or skin change. It’s true that many lumps and bumps aren’t cancerous. But, a breast lump is one of those things you don’t want to take a “wait-and-see” approach with, especially as you get older or if you have a family history of breast cancer.
Patient education groups focus on “red flag” breast changes, such as hard breast lumps that don’t move, skin redness, and nipple changes. But as these stories show, signs of breast cancer can look and feel different than what you might expect. If you notice a breast change, or you’re simply not sure, reach out to your OB/GYN. With new imaging techniques, such as breast ultrasound and MRI, you can get an answer easier and faster than ever before.
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