Breast Cancer or CA Breast is the most common invasive cancer disease in women and this is the second leading cause deaths due to cancer in women after Cancer of lungs.
Awareness of the symptoms of this disease and need for regular screening are both important ways of reduce the risk of this disease. In some rare instances, breast cancer can also affect men, but in this article, we will share about symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in women.
What are the Symptoms of Breast Cancer?
- The first symptoms is to identify a lump in the breast or in the armpit.
- There are other symptoms also which may include:
- Pain breast and armpit which does not change with the monthly cycle
- Redness of the skin of breast, like the surface of an orange
- A rash around or over one of nipple
- Blood discharge from the nipple
- Inverted nipple
- A change in shape and size of the breast
- Scaling and peeling of the skin on nipple or on the breast
Please note that most lumps are not cancerous in nature. However, You must visit a doctor for a consultation if in case you notice a lump in your breast area.
What are the stages of Breast Cancer?
Your Medical Oncologist will stage disease according to size of tumor, whether it has spread to other areas like lymph nodes or to other parts of the body.
There are various ways of staging breast cancer. One way is from stage 0–4, the descriptions of all 4 main stages are listed below-
Stage 0: This is known as as ductal carcinoma in situation, the cells are limited to ducts and have not invaded other tissues.
Stage 1: In this stage, size of the tumor measures up to 2 cm across. Till this time, it has not affected any lymph nodes or small number of cells in the nodes.
Stage 2: The size of tumor is 2 cm across, and it has begun to spread to nearby nodes, or it’s 2–5 cms across in size and did not spread to lymph nodes.
Stage 3: The Size of the tumor is up to 5 cm across and it is spread to several other lymph nodes or the tumor size is larger than 5 cm and it has spread to few lymph nodes only.
Stage 4: The cancer in this stage has spread to far away organs like the bones, liver, lungs and brain etc.
How to Diagnose this Breast Cancer Disease?
There are several diagnostic ways to confirm a diagnosis-
Breast exam; Your Doctor will check breasts for lumps and other for symptoms.
Imaging Investigations-
Mammogram; A type of X-ray that experts commonly use during initial screening of the breast. It produces images that may help doctor to find out abnormalities.
Ultrasound (USG); This is a scan uses sound waves to help a specialist differentiate between solid mass and a cyst filled with fluid.
MRI; This scan combines different images of your breast to help your specialist identify cancer or any other abnormalities.
Biopsy; In this examination of biopsy, your doctor will extract a sample of tissue and sent to laboratory for analysis. Biopsy will show whether the cells are cancerous or not.
The main treatment options include;
- Radiation Therapy
- Chemotherapy
- Surgery
- Biological therapy, or targeted drug therapy
- Hormone therapy
