Which features on a mammogram suggest a suspicious mass?

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Suspicious masses on a mammogram tend to show irregular shape, spiculated or ill-defined margins, density that is different from surrounding tissue, and architectural distortion. These characteristics reflect a lesion that is invading or pulling on surrounding structures, which raises concern for malignancy. A smooth, round mass with well-defined margins is more typical of a benign finding such as a cyst or fibroadenoma, and uniform density across the breast or a diffuse fatty pattern describes normal variations in breast tissue rather than a discrete suspicious mass.