Unexpected places benign tumours can appear and how to spot them
Lumps and bumps are often an inevitable part of having a body. Sometimes they can be cause for concern and sometimes completely harmless.
Harmless tumours are also known as benign tumours, and they can turn up just about anywhere on the body - even in random places, as Fearne Cotton has revealed recently.
The broadcaster, 43, announced in an Instagram video that she is undergoing an operation to remove two benign tumours from her jaw. "I’ve got a benign tumour just in my jaw here, below my ear, another little tiny one above it," the Happy Place podcast host said.
"I’m very grateful they’re benign but they do need to come out because they’re on a nerve. So I’m gonna have that surgery, and then I’m gonna be resting to get better before Christmas."
In her caption, Cotton explained that she first "felt a lump under my ear on my jawline a while ago now but this year noticed it was growing".
What is a benign tumour?
Around nine in 10 tumours are benign. To help Brits identify a benign tumour, Dr Alasdair Scott first explains what it is.
"A tumour is simply a growth. Tumours can be benign or malignant," he says. "Benign tumours (such as colloid cysts) will not spread whereas malignant tumours have the ability to spread to other parts of the body."
The most common benign tumours are related to the skin and includes moles, sebaceous cysts, lipomas and dermatofribomas.
A sebaceous cyst is a small lump in the skin that usually appears on the back or scalp, affecting about one in five people.
Dr Scott, who is the science director at Selph, warns that they can become infected. "They’re easily identified by the fact that they’re in the skin (i.e. the skin doesn’t move over them) and they have a little ‘punctum’ at the top,” he adds, referring to a small area or tip that can be identified at the top of a sebaceous cyst.
Meanwhile, lipomas are lumps of fat that sit underneath the skin so the skin moves over them. They are "painless, soft, squidgy lumps", Dr Scott says, and affect about one in 50 people.
Dermatofibromas are small brown lumps in the skin that can occur as a result of minor trauma to the skin, such as a shaving nick. They are raised, firm and painless, and very common.
Where on the body can benign tumours grow?
Dr Scott says that benign tumours that are unrelated to the skin are also very common. "For example, at least one in five of us have an adenoma (polyp) in the bowel, about one in 10 of us will develop an adenoma in our pituitary gland, and about one in 10 women will have a benign breast tumour called fibroadenoma," he explains.
"Often these cause no symptoms and are either picked up incidentally when looking for something else. Doctors even have a name for these incidental tumours - incidentalomas."
Benign tumours can also grow in the brain, as experienced by Davina McCall. The TV presenter shared on 15 November that doctors had discovered a non-cancerous colloid cyst in her brain and she underwent brain surgery to remove it.
Other unexpected places where benign tumours can grow include:
Blood vessels
Benign tumours can grow from the blood vessels and are known as hemangiomas. They usually look like red or purple bumps or raised areas on your skin, and are most commonly found in infants. They are known colloquially as a ‘strawberry mark’ and usually disappear by 10 years of age.
Cartilage
Chondromas form in your cartilage, the flexible connective tissue that protects your joints and bones. They are mostly found in the small bones of the hands and feet, as well as in the sinuses and bones of the skull.
Nerves
Non-cancerous tumours that develop within the nerves are called neuromas and can grow anywhere in the body. Common neuromas include schwannomas (in the nerve sheath, the tissue that covers nerves), neurofibromas (on the nerves), and ganglioneuromas (in the autonomic nervous system).
Lymphatic system
Lymphangiomas develop in the lymphatic system and typically affect children. They can result in fluid-filled sacs growing on the skin and the mucous membranes that line the mouth, nose and inner eyelids.
When should you worry about a tumour?
Benign tumours usually do not cause issues. However, if they become large, they can compress or obstruct other structures within the body near it, which can cause pain and other complications. In these cases, you should see your GP as they may need to be removed surgically.
There are some types of benign tumours that can turn into malignant tumours and must be monitored closely or removed surgically.
Dr Scott advises: "In terms of malignant tumours, the commonest are again related to the skin. Basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma are all types of skin cancer. They can have quite a varied appearance but some have common features can include growth (i.e. they get larger over time), bleeding and sometimes being painful.
"The commonest are breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men, bowel cancer and lung cancer."
Read more about health and wellness:
Davina McCall's short-term memory 'a bit remiss' after brain tumour surgery (Yahoo Life UK, 3-min read)
UK woman mistook football-sized ovarian cyst for baby (SWNS, 4-min read)
Here's How To Tell Normal Breast Lumps From Cancerous Ones (HuffPost, 2-min read)
