Anyone who gets a mammogram or other cancer checkup shortly after a COVID-19 vaccine should alert doctors to avoid false side effects.
Do you want to have a mammogram or other cancer check-up shortly after the COVID-19 vaccine? Be sure to tell your doctor about the shot to avoid a false alarm for a temporary side effect.
This is the advice of cancer experts and radiologists. Sometimes the lymph nodes, especially in the armpit, swell after vaccinations. It is a normal reaction of the immune system, but can be confused with cancer if it appears on a mammogram or other scan.
“We need to make it known,” said Dr. Melissa Chen, a radiologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who recently had to reassure a frightened patient who was looking for cancer evidence due to an enlarged lymph node.
A panel of experts from three cancer centers (MD Anderson, New York’s Sloan Kettering Memorial and Boston’s Dana-Farber) last week published recommendations in the journal Radiology on how to manage complicated scans for the side effect.
The main message: “This should not prevent patients from getting the vaccine,” stressed Chen, one of the co-authors.
The lymph nodes are part of the immune system where the white blood cells that fight the infection gather, spots that are usually too small to feel. But they can be inflated during the disease and after other types of vaccines. And with the expected jump in COVID-19 vaccines, doctors should “prepare to see large volumes” of imaging tests (including chest CT scans, PET scans, and mammograms) that show lymph nodes. inflated, according to similar recommendations in the Journal of the American College of Radiology this week.
The most affected nodes are in the armpit and near the collarbone, on the same side as the vaccination, Chen said.
The Food and Drug Administration lists inflammation along with other injection-related reactions commonly reported in studies on Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, though not for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
It is not clear how often it happens. The FDA found that 16% of participants in the Modern study reported some swelling of the armpits after their second dose. But if the lymph nodes only widen slightly, they can appear on a medical examination without people noticing bumps.
Consumer advice is still evolving. If experts agree: If you have recently been vaccinated, tell your radiologist before performing any scan. This will help them assess whether an enlarged lymph node is likely related to the vaccine and can simply be controlled, or whether it is worrisome enough for a biopsy or other test.
And try to schedule an upcoming screening or other cancer-related scan before vaccination if possible without losing your spot on the vaccine line, the radiology group said.
People with active cancer who are on one side of the body can choose vaccination on the opposite side to minimize confusion.
Do not delay any urgent examination, stress radiologists. But there is some disagreement about non-urgent explorations. The Radiology group said it was considering scheduling purely routine exams six weeks after vaccination. In contrast, Massachusetts General Hospital recommendations urge treating the side effect with good communication rather than delaying screening.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.