Breast lumps can be caused by infections, injuries, non-cancerous growths, and cancer.

• Breast cancer usually causes no pain in the breast. The symptoms of breast cancer include painless breast lumps, nipple discharge, and inflammation of the skin of the breast.
• The chances that a particular breast lump could be cancerous depends on many factors, including past medical history, physical examination, and genetic and other risk factors.
• The only way to be certain that a lump is not cancerous is to have a tissue sampling (biopsy). There are several ways to do the biopsy. The treatment of a breast lump depends on its cause.

If you have an underlying breast condition, you might notice changes in how your breasts normally feel, such as:

• A round, smooth and firm breast lump
• A large, solid-feeling lump that moves easily under your skin
• A hard, irregular-shaped breast lump
• Skin Redness or dimpling like an orange
• Changes in breast size or shape
• Fluid leaking from your nipple

Breast lumps can result from:

• Breast cysts. If you find a breast lump that feels round, smooth and firm, it could be a cyst — a dilated milk duct filled with fluid. A breast cyst can be large or small, and the surrounding breast tissue may be tender. A breast cyst may appear before your menstrual period and get smaller or disappear afterward.
• Fibrocystic breast changes. With fibrocystic breast changes, you may feel fullness in your breasts with areas of lumpiness or ridgelike areas. Your breasts may feel tender. Many women experience fibrocystic breast changes related to their menstrual cycles that tend to improve after the menstrual cycle.
• Fibroadenomas. Fibroadenomas are solid, noncancerous breast tumors that are smooth and move easily under your skin when touched. A fibroadenoma may grow larger. Factors that may be associated with fibroadenoma growth include being pregnant, using hormone therapy or menstruation.
• Injuries and infections. A severe injury to your breast tissue or nearby nerves can create a breast lump. Doctors describe this condition as fat necrosis. A collection of infected fluid (abscess) in breast tissue also can cause a breast lump, one that's often associated with localized breast pain and inflammation of the skin.
• Breast cancer. A breast lump that's painless, hard, irregularly shaped and different from surrounding breast tissue might be breast cancer. Skin covering the lump may look red, dimpled or pitted like the skin of an orange. Your breast size and shape may change, or you may notice discharge from the nipple.

Only by seeing your doctor for evaluation can you be certain of what kinds of tests you might need and which type of breast lump you have.

1. Breast pain (mastodynia) is a common problem. As long as the doctor or patient can feel no mass, and no breast lump is seen on a mammogram or ultrasound, breast pain is often concluded to be a normal condition. It is often thought that this pain is caused by natural hormonal fluctuations. If the discomfort is particularly acute and interferes excessively with a woman's life, oral contraceptives or other medications can be helpful, especially if the pain is worse around the time of the menstrual cycles.
2. Fibrocystic changes do not require medication or surgery. Often, a baseline mammogram is done. Then, no further treatment is needed unless a new lump arises, in which case an evaluation with a mammogram and possibly ultrasound is necessary.
3. Fibroadenomas are usually removed because they may otherwise be difficult to distinguish from cancer.
4. Breast cancer requires urgent treatment. Treatment depends on the type of cancer detected, its size, and its location.
5. An abscess of the breast often needs to be drained by a doctor because antibiotics alone cannot adequately treat an abscess.
6. A breast infection (mastitis) in a woman who is breast-feeding is treated with warm compresses and antibiotics.

• Heat treatment is a convenient and effective way of applying heat treatment is to wet some washcloths and put them in the microwave briefly to warm them.
• Hot showers
• Massage during heat treatment of the infected area.
• Beast swelling pain: Heat treatment helps open up the milk ducts. Nursing your baby or using a breast pump can help relieve the swelling and pain. Contrary to common myth, nursing the baby or using a breast pump is a critical part of the treatment because it helps decrease the chance of the infection progressing.

If the area actually looks red or fails to get better with heat, massage, and nursing, a doctor should be consulted for consideration of antibiotics. If untreated, mastitis can quickly progress and develop into a severe infection. Whether a woman is pregnant or not, she needs to see a doctor if the area does not return completely to normal with treatment in order to rule out more unusual types of infections. Cellulitis needs to be treated with antibiotics and frequent follow-ups with the doctor.

Infections

Inflammation of the breast tissue is known as mastitis. Mastitis may occur in women who are breastfeeding a baby (lactating). When the skin of the nipple (areola) is injured or cracked, which may occur with nursing, bacteria can enter the damaged area and cause infections. In a breastfeeding woman, a hard area commonly thought of as a "clogged milk duct" can form. Sometimes, certain treatments (see below) can prevent the painful, hard area from developing into an actual breast infection. Infections can either be a deep pocket of pus, in which the infection looks like it is growing down into the breast (an abscess), or a wider area of skin redness that spreads out (cellulitis). Body piercing in the nipple area increases the risk of breast infections, and these may be particularly difficult to treat.

Injuries to the Breast

If a breast is injured by trauma, tiny blood vessels can rupture to cause an area of localized bleeding (hematoma) that can be felt as a lump. Trauma to the breast can damage the fat cells in the breast tissue, a condition called fat necrosis. The injury can also form a lump in the breast. These types of lumps that follow a significant trauma are not cancerous. Fat necrosis can also occur at the site of a previous breast biopsy.