(WXYZ) – While enlarged lymph nodes are a completely normal and harmless response to a vaccine. They have caused some confusion during the COVID immunization process. Especially for women.
“People started getting vaccinated in December and we had our health workers do their mammograms and we were like, ‘Wow, this person really has enlarged lymph nodes,’” says Dr. Connie Lehman, the director of bust imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. in Boston.
On a mammogram, an enlarged lymph node appears as white blobs. This is also what doctors see when a cancerous tumor spreads. And so making this connection between the vaccine and the lymph nodes was important to prevent what Lehman calls “false positives.”
“We had reported this in mammography centers before, but nowhere near the level that we saw with the COVID vaccine. We think this is because the COVID vaccine produces a very strong immunological response,” said Lehman, who wrote two papers on it. subject has written in the hope. to get the word out to avoid unnecessary “cancer fear” and the fear and expense of unnecessary testing.
“We want to find cancer early when it can be treated and cured – we also don’t want to bring patients back for additional imaging, biopsies, or treatment when they don’t actually have cancer,” said Lehman, who has written two papers on the link between vaccines and cancer. lymph nodes.
“This is a normal health inflammatory response, so we want to calm the anxiety,” she said.
But does this mean that women should cancel their mammogram screening to avoid confusion? Absolutely not.
While a simple fix may seem like women are recommended to get screened 4-6 weeks after their second vaccine – once the swelling should subside – Lehman points out that not all women have the flexibility, time, or resources to just reschedule. And missing a screening can be more damaging.
In the year of the COVID pandemic, the US had the lowest rate of mammography screenings – and there is therefore fear of an advanced delayed diagnosis of breast cancer.
“We will see more breast cancer deaths from COVID than ever in the US – 100 percent,” said Lehman, who later added. “It is almost impossible that we will avoid that unless we do everything we can to bring women back for a mammogram.”
Rather than reschedule a screening, Lehman said, make sure your healthcare provider knows you were vaccinated and on which arm so they can keep this in mind during the screening.
“The message couldn’t be clearer: get vaccinated as soon as possible, the second message is, don’t skip your screening mammogram,” she said.
It is suggested that women between the ages of 50 and 74 undergo mammogram screening every one to two years.