Early diagnosis of breast cancer is the key to saving a breast and most importantly, saving a life. Women should have regular mammograms after the age of 40. All women should do breast self-examination at home every month.
Monthly exams consist of feeling around the breasts and looking at the nipples in a mirror. If you are experiencing symptoms such as discharge from a nipple, a change in the shape of one nipple, lumps or hardness, call your doctor immediately.
Catching breast cancer early is the key to saving your own life. If the doctor determines that you do indeed have a lump in your breast that is out of the ordinary, the next step would be to perform a biopsy. This is an outpatient procedure where the doctor takes some of the tissue from the lump in order to test it and see if it is benign or malignant. A benign tumor is not cancer. If it is malignant, then breast cancer will be the diagnosis.
Once breast cancer has been diagnosed, the next step is to find out how far the cancer has spread and in what stage it is. Often, if it is caught early on, a lumpectomy is done. Some women choose to have radiation and chemotherapy before surgery to try to shrink the cancer so they do not have to have a breast removed. When a woman has a mastectomy (breast removal), the lymphatic nodes under the arm are often taken to ensure the cancer does not reoccur. Many women have a lumpectomy - where the lump is all that is removed - followed by chemotherapy and radiation. Hormone therapy may be prescribed as well.
It was once believed that breast cancer was mostly a familial problem, but the truth is that 90 percent of those diagnosed with breast cancer do not have a genetic predisposition for the disease. It can strike anyone at any time.
The great news is that more women are living through breast cancer than ever before. Doctors credit this to self-exams and early diagnosis. If you are a woman, please understand the importance of checking yourself monthly. Your doctor can show you how to do it as well as guide you as to which time in the month is best.
