According to doctors, a side effect of the vaccine may mimic signs of breast cancer.
(Courtesy of the University of Utah Health) A bottle of the Pfizer version of the COVID-19 vaccine. Doctors warn patients to delay performing mammograms for a month after receiving the last dose of the vaccine, due to a side effect that mimics a condition often seen in cancer diagnoses .
Health experts across the country, including a prominent Utah doctor, warn women receiving the COVID-19 vaccine to wait at least a month before performing a routine mammogram, due to a side effect of the vaccine. which mimics a condition that is often seen 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 Intermountain Healthcare Breast Care Center.
Parkinson said doctors at the center, as well as doctors across the country, have noticed that some people receiving the COVID-19 vaccine have had the side effect of swollen lymph nodes in the armpit or area. the armpit. By itself, this swelling is not severe and usually subsides within four weeks.
“Your body is generating an immune response, and that’s good,” Parkinson said.
However, when this swelling in the lymph nodes in the armpit appears during a routine mammogram, Parkinson said, it is likely that a doctor will call the patient back for a more detailed examination. This swelling, he said, may be a sign of metastatic breast cancer (a cancer that has spread beyond the breast) or lymphoma or leukemia.
The side effect appears in 11% of patients after the first dose of the Modern version of the COVID-19 vaccine and in 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 realized that if we don’t do something, we will have a lot of patients who will come back unnecessarily. [to their doctor] for these enlarged lymph nodes, ”Parkinson said.
Parkinson said signs have been put up at the Intermountain Breast Care Center in Murray and other Intermountain sites that perform mammograms, telling patients that except for other symptoms, such as a lump in the chest, they should delay your mammogram for up to four weeks after receiving your last dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
(For now, the last dose is the second dose of the Pfizer or Modern versions. When the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine appears online, as expected after federal approval later this month , the first dose will also be the last dose, noted Parkinson.)
Parkinson stressed that if a patient presents with other symptoms of breast cancer (a lump in the chest or bloody discharge from the nipple or scaling around the nipple) he should not hesitate to consult his doctor. “We’ll go ahead and do the mammogram,” Parkinson said.
When mammography is routine, as with an annual checkup or follow-up exam after a tumorectomy, the test can be delayed, but not indefinitely, Parkinson said.
“Don’t skip the annual screening mammogram,” Parkinson said. “Postponing it for a month or two won’t be so shocking. Postponing it for a year could really be.”
Women at medium risk for breast cancer should have a screening mammogram at age 40, and after that, every year as long as they are healthy, Parkinson said. Women who have a family history of breast cancer, such as a mother or sister, should start getting mammograms 40 or 10 years before the age at which their relative is diagnosed, which pass first, he said.
Parkinson said the Breast Care Center does not do screening mammograms on men, which account for less than 1% of all breast cancer cases. If a man finds a palpable lump, a diagnostic mammogram should be done, Parkinson said.