How is Breast Cancer Diagnosed?
In patients with no symptomes some tests called screening are applied to configure the situation. The earlier the cancer is diagnosed, the more the treatment chance. The purpose is to detect cancer before symptomes are observed. The most important factors to determine the situation of patient are cancer size and its spread distance. Some ways of early diagnosis of breast cancer are as following.
Basics of Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer:
According to American Cancer Association the methods below are listed below.
Mammography:
It is important and recommended for women above 40 years old to do mammography every year. Although mammography may not be successful for some cancers but it shows superior performance in breast cancer diagnosis.
Clinical Breast Examination:
This type of examination is recommended once per 3 years for women between 20 to 39 years old, and yearly for women above 40. This examination should be done by a specialist. It is a good idea to do clinical breastexamination just before mammography.
Breast Self-Awareness and Self-Examination:
Your breasts change as you go through different stages of your life. It’s important to learn what is normal for your breasts. This is called breast self-awareness. The key to breast self-awareness is knowing how your breasts normally look and feel. This helps you to notice any changes.
Breast self-awareness isn’t about following a certain method and schedule. Breast self-awareness is knowing what’s normal for your breasts. That way you can notice even small changes right away. If you see any changes, report them to your healthcare provider right away.
Call your provider if you find any changes in your breasts that concern you. These changes may include a lump, sipple discharge other than breast milk, especially a bloody discharge, swelling, a change in size or shape, skin irritation, such as redness, thickening, or dimpling of the skin, swollen lymph nodes in the armpit, nipple problems, such as pain or redness.
High Risk Females: Females at high risk have to cosult with her doctor about approximation method. This means starting screening mammography in earlier ages, applying additional examinations and visit to a her doctor more frequently.
SCREENING METHODS
Mammography:
Mammograms can often show abnormal areas in the breast. They can’t prove that an abnormal area is cancer, but they can help health care providers decide whether more testing is needed. The 2 main types of breast changes found with a mammogram are calcifications and masses
During a mammogram, a patient’s breast is placed on a flat support plate and compressed with a parallel plate called a paddle. An x-ray machine produces a small burst of x-rays that pass through the breast to a detector located on the opposite side. The detector can be either a photographic film plate, which captures the x-ray image on film, or a solid-state detector, which transmits electronic signals to a computer to form a digital image. The images produced are called mammograms.
On a film mammogram, low density tissues, such as fat, appear translucent (i.e. darker shades of gray approaching the black background)., whereas areas of dense tissue, such as connective and glandular tissue or tumors, appear whiter on a gray background. In a standard mammogram, both a top and a side view are taken of each breast, although extra views may be taken if the physician is concerned about a suspicious area of the breast.
Because mammography uses x-rays to produce images of the breast, patients are exposed to a small amount of ionizing radiation. For most women, the benefits of regular mammograms outweigh the risks posed by this amount of radiation. The risk associated with this dose appears to be greater among younger women (under age 40). However, in some cases, the benefits of using mammography to detect breast cancer under age 40 may outweigh the risks of radiation exposure.
Females at high risk are better to conult with their doctor before mammography.
Clinical Breast Examination:
During a clinical breast exam, your doctor checks your breasts’ appearance. You may be asked to raise your arms over your head, let them hang by your sides, or press your hands against your hips. These postures allow your doctor to look for differences in size or shape between your breasts. The skin covering your breasts is checked for any rash, dimpling, or other abnormal signs. Your nipples may be checked to see if fluid is expressed when lightly squeezed.
Using the pads of the fingers, your doctor checks your entire breast, underarm, and collarbone area for any lumps or abnormalities. It is worth noting that some women have breast tissue that appears to be full of tiny fibrous bumps or ridges throughout the breast tissue, known as fibrocystic breasts. Overall lumpy tissue is something your doctor will want to note but is unrelated to cancer.
Breast Self-Awareness and Self-Examination:
Your breasts change as you go through different stages of your life. It’s important to learn what is normal for your breasts. This is called breast self-awareness. The key to breast self-awareness is knowing how your breasts normally look and feel. This helps you to notice any changes.
Breast self-awareness isn’t about following a certain method and schedule. Breast self-awareness is knowing what’s normal for your breasts. That way you can notice even small changes right away. If you see any changes, report them to your healthcare provider right away.
Call your provider if you find any changes in your breasts that concern you. These changes may include a lump, sipple discharge other than breast milk, especially a bloody discharge, swelling, a change in size or shape, skin irritation, such as redness, thickening, or dimpling of the skin, swollen lymph nodes in the armpit, nipple problems, such as pain or redness.
In Case of Breast Cancer Suspicion:
In case of breast cancer suspicion, after a detailed physical examination your doctor may ask for more screenings listed below.
Mammography:
A screening mammogram is done when you have no problems or concerns about your breasts. It’s the type of mammogram that’s done during your annual or biannual screening. It can detect the presence of breast cancer in the absence of any signs or symptoms. Even if nothing is diagnosed in mammography and your doctors feels some bump while palpation, you may be asked for biopsy. As an exception, the bump may be a cyst which can get certained by ultrasound. Mammography is less accurate in young females because breast tissue is denser in young ages and can hide tumor inside itself. As generally breast cancer occurs in young ages, this is a big problem of risky young females. As a result, in addition to mammography, doctors may ask for MRI as well. Mammography cannot approve or deny the cancer certainly. In case of any diagnosis without mammography, sampling from breast tissue may be applied, which is called biopsy.
Breast Ultrasound:
Ultrasound imaging uses sound waves to produce pictures of the inside of the body. It is used to help diagnose the causes of pain, swelling and infection in the body’s internal organs and to examine a baby in pregnant women and the brain and hips in infants. It’s also used to help guide biopsies, diagnose heart conditions, and assess damage after a heart attack. Ultrasound is safe, noninvasive, and does not use ionizing radiation
The primary use of breast ultrasound is to help diagnose breast abnormalities detected by a physician during a physical exam (such as a lump) and to characterize potential abnormalities seen on mammography or breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Ultrasound imaging can help to determine if an abnormality is solid (which may be a non-cancerous lump of tissue or a cancerous tumor), fluid-filled (such as a benign cyst) or both cystic and solid.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI):
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast is a test used to detect breast cancer and other abnormalities in the breast. A breast MRI captures multiple images of your breast. Breast MRI images are combined, using a computer, to create detailed pictures.
A breast MRI usually is performed after you have a biopsy that’s positive for cancer and your doctor needs more information about the extent of the disease. For some people, a breast MRI may be used with mammograms as a screening tool for detecting breast cancer. That group of people includes women with a high risk of breast cancer, who have a very strong family history of breast cancer or carry a hereditary breast cancer gene mutation.
MRI uses strong magnets instead of radiation to make very detailed, cross-sectional pictures of the body. An MRI scanner takes pictures from many angles, as if someone were looking at a slice of your body from the front, from the side, or from above your head. MRI creates pictures of soft tissue parts of the body that would sometimes be hard to see using other imaging tests.
Ductography:
Ductography is an imaging technique which is used to evaluate lesions causing nipple discharge. It helps in precisely locating the mass within breast tissue and gives useful information for surgical approach and planning. A blunt-tipped sialogram needle (30-gauge) is used for performing the ductogram. The abnormal duct is identified and cannulated. Approximately 1-2 mL of contrast is injected. A standard two-view mammography (or craniocaudal and mediolateral projections) are obtained.
