A side effect of the vaccine may mimic the signs of breast cancer, according to doctors.
(Kindness of the University of Utah Health) A bottle of the Pfizer version of the COVID-19 vaccine. Doctors warn patients that they should be delayed in getting mammograms for a month after the last dose of the vaccine, due to a side effect that mimics a condition often found in cancer diagnoses.
National health experts, including a prominent Utah doctor, warn women receiving COVID-19 vaccine to wait at least a month before having a routine mammogram – due to a side effect of the vaccine that mimics a common condition. often in cancer diagnoses.
“We don’t want patients to get these false positives, to have this kind of alarm,” said Dr. Brett Parkinson, medical director of the Breast Care Center at Intermountain Healthcare.
Parkinson said doctors at the center, as well as doctors across the country, noticed that some people receiving the COVID-19 vaccine had the side effect of swollen lymph nodes in the armpit or armpit area. In itself, such swelling is not severe and usually disappears in four weeks.
“Their body creates an immune response, and that’s a good thing,” Parkinson said.
However, when such swelling of the lymph nodes in the armpit occurs during a routine mammogram, Parkinson said, a doctor would probably call a patient back for a more detailed examination. Such swelling, he said, could be a sign of metastatic breast cancer – a cancer that has spread beyond the breast – or lymphoma or leukemia.
The side effect occurs in 11% of patients after the first dose of the Modern version of the COVID-19 vaccine and 16% of the time after the second dose, Parkinson said. He added that experts expect similar findings with patients receiving the Pfizer version.
“We started looking at this and we realized if we don’t do something, that we will have many patients who will return unnecessarily. [to their doctor] for these enlarged lymph nodes, ”Parkinson said.
Parkinson said signs have been placed at the Intermountain Breast Care Center in Murray and other Intermountain mammography locations, telling patients that – except for other symptoms, such as a lump in the breast – she should be late to have a mammography up to four weeks after receiving the last dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
(For now, the last dose is the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna versions. When the Johnson & Johnson single-injection vaccine goes into action, as expected after federal approval later this month, the first dose will be the last dose, Parkinson noted.)
Parkinson stressed that if a patient has other symptoms of breast cancer – a lump in the breast or a bloody discharge from the nipple or scaling around the nipple – he should not hesitate to visit his doctor. “We’ll go ahead and have a mammogram,” Parkinson said.
When mammography is routine, as in an annual check-up, or a follow-up exam after a lumpectomy, the test may be delayed, but not endless, Parkinson said.
“Don’t skip the annual screening mammogram,” Parkinson said. “The postponement by a month or two will not be so impactful. Postponing it by a year could indeed be. ”
Women at medium risk for breast cancer should have a screening mammogram at age 40 and every year thereafter as long as they are healthy, Parkinson said. Women with a family history of breast cancer, such as a mother or sister, should start mammograms at the age of 40 or 10 before the age at which their relative was diagnosed, whichever comes first, he said. .
Parkinson said the Breast Care Center does not offer screening mammograms to men, which account for less than 1% of all breast cancer cases. However, if a man finds a palpable piece, he should have a diagnostic mammogram, Parkinson said.