This is a continuation of my series on Breast Cancer. Like we already know it is the commonest cancer in women and the commonest cause of cancer death in women.
We also already know that both men and women can suffer from this dreaded disease but it is 100 times commoner in women. Furthermore we have been told that breast cancer at the early stage may not have symptoms and the commonest symptom is painless lump in the breast. Other symptoms include pain in the breast, nipple discharge, lump in the armpit, nipple changes, rashes, ulcer etc.
I have also told you in part 1 that anyone who has had cancer in one breast has an extremely high risk of developing it in the other breast. Similarly those with a close family history of breast cancer, those who have had cancer in other parts of their body, obese people, smokers etc are at high risk of developing breast cancer.
In this part i shall be looking at how to detect breast cancer.
It is so important to detect breast cancer early because the earlier it is detected and treated, the better the outcome.
So how can Breast Cancer be detected???
* I advise people to examine their breasts regularly for lumps, rashes, ulcer, pain and some changes. If you are twenty and above, i advise that you become familiar with how your breasts feel and look normally, so that you can easily tell when there are changes.
* Report these changes to your doctor immediately
* Screening of the breast using a special x-ray equipment called mammogram detects early stages of breast cancer. In advanced world like UK, there is a screening programme for all women between 50 and 70 years where they are invited for a free mammography. If you are in Nigeria and you belong to this age group or have a significant risk please find a good centre and undergo a mammography.
* MRI :
The breast can also be screened for early stages of cancer using an MRI. I believe this is a lot more expensive than mammography.
Having discussed how to screen or detect early cancers, i will now look into how to diagnose breast cancer.
If for example you notice a breast changes and you go see your doctor, depending in the part of the world you live, i expect that you will be referred to see a breast specialist or cancer specialist who should undertake the following:
a) Talk to you and take a history of your symptoms
b)Examine your breasts including your arm pits and your lymph node areas
c) Conduct the following diagnostic procedures as follows:
* mammogram
* Breast ultrasound ( ultrasound of the breast)
* Fine needle aspiration ( a needle is used by a doctor to withdraw some cells from the breast lump into a syringe under ultrasound guidance and this sample is sent to the lab to check for cancer)
* biopsy ( a small part of the lump or tissue is removed surgically or by suction or other means and taken to the lab for examination by the pathologist)
* Lymph node ultrasound and fine needle aspiration ( ultrasound of any suspicious lymph node and needle aspiration like as described above)
Following these procedures the doctor will be able to confirm for sure if actually you are suffering from breast cancer.
One big question is this: Are all breast lumps or breast pain or rash etc breast cancer?? The answer is a capital NO. There are other possible causes which I shall be discussing in part 3 of this series.
Hope you learned a thing or two from this. Thanks for reading
Dr Chin Akano
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