A lipoma, a knob of fatty tissue under your skin, is probably harmless, but it needs to be checked.
A lipoma is a lump of fatty tissue between your skin and the underlying muscle.
It feels rubbery, and you may be able to move it around a bit. A lipoma is usually painless, harmless, and not cancerous.
Lipomas tend to grow slowly over months or even years. Although the rare lipoma may become as large as 8 inches, most stay smaller than 2 inches.
A lipoma is the most common soft tissue tumor in adults, occurring in one in every 1,000 people.
It can develop in people of any age, even in newborns, but it typically appears in adults between ages 40 and 60.
Lipomas are slightly more common in men than women, and about 20 percent of people who have one lipoma develop another.
Medical experts don't know what causes a lipoma, but some think it's a response to a physical trauma.
However, it's possible that the trauma doesn't cause the lipoma, but it was there previously and discovered because of the trauma.
Some doctors think lipomas occur more often in inactive people, but this belief hasn't been proven.
Lipomas do tend to run in families, so genetic factors can play a role in their development. Some genetic conditions can cause a person to have one or more lipomas, including:
Gardner syndrome, a condition that causes benign tumors to form
Adiposis dolorosa, a condition marked by the growth of lipomas
Familial multiple lipomatosis, a hereditary condition that causes multiple lipomas to form
Madelung disease, a rare condition marked by lipomas forming around the upper body
Cowden syndrome, which is characterized by benign tumors, skin tags, and large head size
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