Women at risk for non-cancerous tumor

UNDATED (WVIT) - Alison Buchanan is about to walk down the aisle.

But in the midst of wedding planning she got quite a scare.

A mammogram detected a lump in her breast.

"I was petrified, absolutely. So scared. Breast cancer runs in my family.  One of my girlfriends is currently going through the process," said Buchanan.

More testing found the lump was not cancer, but something called "Fibroadenoma."

"Fibroadenomas are the most common benign tumors of a woman's breast.  They're typically whitish tumors that can become painful. They can increase in size over a period of time," explained Breast Surgeon Dr. Andrew Kenler.

Doctor Andrew Kenler is Alison's breast surgeon.

He says about 10% of women will get one of these lumps at some point in their life.

They're most common in women in their 20's and 30's.

Besides pain, they pose another problem.

"They can obscure tissue on a mammogram which can make it hard for us to read the underlying tissue area," said Dr. Kenler.

Traditionally, the tumor's removed surgically in the hospital. 

But new technology approved by the FDA called Visica "2" has changed that.

"It allows us to freeze these tumors and destroy the tumors in an office setting with just local anesthesia," said Dr. Kenler.

"It was very simple it was basically a 10 minute, 15 minute ordeal and I expected it to be a very painful thing and it really wasn't at all," said Buchanan.

So now this bride-to-be can get back to more important things, such as wedding planning.