Mammograms pick up swelling due to Covid-19 vaccine, causing unnecessary fear, radiologists say - CNN

"I cannot tell you how many women are showing nodes on mammograms and people thought it was going to be not that common," said Lehman, who is also a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.

Tales of unnecessary biopsies spurred the patient care committee of the Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) to put out an advisory in January: Ask your patients about their Covid-19 status, and record the date and which arm received the vaccine.

"You might tell them, 'Hey, I think this is due to your Covid vaccine, and I'm sure that it's going to resolve in a few weeks on its own and you're going to be fine.' But that patient tells you, 'I'm not going to be comfortable waiting, I want to know now.' "

Focus on screening to save lives

For Quasha, the knowledge that many women were experiencing the same type of reaction to the vaccine was a welcome relief from worry.

"The point here is that there are a number of side effects from the vaccine which are not dangerous but can sometimes increase patient anxiety."

Instead of bringing women back in for an unnecessary ultrasound, radiology centers should be focused on scheduling women who have missed or are overdue on their mammogram, Lehman said.

"We need to take care of the large percentage of women who didn't get screened because of the shutdowns during Covid," she said.

Lymph nodes in other parts of the body are also reacting to the Covid-19 vaccines, causing people with other forms of cancer to undergo unnecessary procedures.

"There have been some false scares and some unnecessary biopsies because people didn't think to ask, and they assume that the node was the cancer coming back," she said.

What to do?

To avoid unnecessary worry, SBI recommends women schedule any routine, annual breast screening before getting the Covid-19 vaccine.

They are screening all women regardless of vaccine status, but telling those with no history of cancer that any swelling in the lymph nodes that might be connected to a Covid-19 vaccine is benign -- meaning not cancerous.

"This follows the American College of Radiology recommendations that if you have a known inflammatory cause you can say it's benign," said Lehman, who recently published a paper on the hospital's procedures.

"If their concern is a swelling or tenderness after the vaccine in their armpit, we suggest that they wait four to six weeks, talk to their doctor, and if it persists, then we have them come in to do an evaluation of it," she said.

Whatever you do, experts stress, don't skip getting your breast cancer screening when it is recommended.

A study published Tuesday in the journal Radiology that followed over half a million women made the point clearly: Women who skip even one scheduled mammography screening before they are diagnosed with breast cancer have a significantly higher risk of dying.

In fact, the risk of having a fatal breast cancer within 10 years of diagnosis was 50% lower for women who had regular breast screenings, the study said.