A benign tumor has distinct, smooth, regular borders. A malignant tumor has irregular borders and grows faster than a benign tumor. A malignant tumor can also spread to other parts of your body. A benign tumor can become quite large, but it will not invade nearby tissue or spread to other parts of your body.
Benign tumors often have a visual border of a protective sac that helps doctors diagnose them as benign. Your doctor may also order blood tests to check for the presence of cancer markers. In other cases, doctors will take a biopsy of the tumor to determine whether it's benign or malignant.
There is no way to tell from symptoms alone if a tumor is benign or malignant. Often an MRI scan can reveal the tumor type, but in many cases, a biopsy is required.
They can feel firm or soft. Benign masses are more likely to be painful to the touch, such as with an abscess. Benign tumors also tend to grow more slowly, and many are smaller than 5 cm (2 inches) at their longest point. Sarcomas (cancerous growths) more often are painless.
A non-cancerous (benign) soft tissue tumour is a growth that does not spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body. Non-cancerous tumours are not usually life-threatening. They are typically removed with surgery and do not usually come back (recur). There are many types of non-cancerous soft tissue tumours.
Cysts that appear uniform after examination by ultrasound or a computerized tomography (CT) scan are almost always benign and should simply be observed. If the cyst has solid components, it may be benign or malignant and should have further evaluation.
Imaging is used not only for local staging but also to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions. MRI is the preferred imaging modality for the evaluation of soft-tissue masses in clinical practice.
While many benign tumors do not need treatment, some do, especially if they are causing symptoms. Usually if a benign tumor requires treatment, we remove it surgically. Whenever possible, we use minimally invasive techniques, which require small incisions and have minimal recovery time.
Imaging tests, such as CT scans or MRIs, are helpful in detecting masses or irregular tissue, but they alone can't tell the difference between cancerous cells and cells that aren't cancerous. For most cancers, the only way to make a diagnosis is to perform a biopsy to collect cells for closer examination.
Ultrasound can usually help differentiate between benign and malignant tumours based on shape, location, and a number of other sonographic characteristics. If the ultrasound is inconclusive, your doctor may request follow-up ultrasound to monitor the tumor or a radiologist may recommend a biopsy.
“Most benign tumors aren't life-threatening. They can be left alone as they are unlikely to cause damage to any other areas of your body. In fact, many individuals carry benign tumors that don't require treatment, such as moles, throughout their lives.”
2 While benign tumors are not cancerous, some of them can grow very large (sometimes up to several pounds) if left untreated.
Benign tumors may be painless, but often they cause bone pain. The pain can be severe. Pain may occur when at rest or at night and tends to progressively worsen. (See also Overview of Bone Tumors.
When to see a doctor. In rare cases, an unexplained lump, bump or swelling can be a sign of a more serious issue beneath the skin. Bumps that are cancerous are typically large, hard, painless to the touch and appear spontaneously. The mass will grow in size steadily over the weeks and months.
Benign and cancerous (malignant) tumours
Tumours (lumps) can be benign or cancerous (malignant). Benign means it is not cancer. Benign tumours: usually grow quite slowly.
When a benign tumor requires treatment, it isn't too different from the treatment of a malignant or cancerous tumor. It may be radiation therapy, radiosurgery for benign tumors located in the skull base, surgery or chemotherapy.
Benign tumors are those that stay in their primary location without invading other sites of the body. They do not spread to local structures or to distant parts of the body. Benign tumors tend to grow slowly and have distinct borders. Benign tumors are not usually problematic.
A benign tumor is not a malignant tumor, which is cancer. It does not invade nearby tissue or spread to other parts of the body the way cancer can. In most cases, the outlook with benign tumors is very good. But benign tumors can be serious if they press on vital structures such as blood vessels or nerves.
While benign tumors rarely become malignant, some adenomas and leiomyomas may develop into cancer and should be removed. Desmoid tumors and fibroids also may cause damage if they are allowed to grow and may require surgery or a polypectomy.
Can a Radiologist See Breast Cancer from a Mammogram, Ultrasound, or MRI? While breast imaging techniques can find suspicious areas in your breast that may be cancer, they can't tell for sure if cancer is present. A breast biopsy is needed to confirm a diagnosis of cancer.
The results, called a pathology report, may be ready as soon as 2 or it may take as long as 10 days. How long it takes to get your biopsy results depends on how many tests are needed on the sample. Based on these tests, the laboratory processing your sample can learn if cancer is present and, if so, what type it is.
Aside from leukemia, most cancers cannot be detected in routine blood work, such as a CBC test. However, specific blood tests are designed to identify tumor markers, which are chemicals and proteins that may be found in the blood in higher quantities than normal when cancer is present.
Non-cancerous brain tumours tend to stay in one place and don't spread. They won't usually come back if all of the tumour can be safely removed during surgery. Because they aren't cancerous they can often be successfully treated, but they're still serious and can be life threatening.
Even though most benign tumors are harmless and can be left alone, it's important they be monitored. And any tumor that is painful or growing requires a visit to the doctor.
Tumours have been known to disappear spontaneously, in the absence of any targeted treatment, usually after an infection (bacterial, viral, fungal or even protozoal).