Do I Have Breast Cancer?

Breast lumps have a wide range of symptoms, from unilateral lumps to bilateral lumps, from large to small lumps, from light to hard lumps, and from different lengths of disease.

Many women are afraid to talk about cancer and rush to feel their breasts to check for any abnormalities.

Because they do not know enough about breast lumps, most people's first reaction when they find a lump in their breast is to worry that they have breast cancer.

It is understood that breast lumps have a wide range of symptoms, from unilateral to bilateral lumps, from large to small lumps, from light to hard lumps, and from different lengths of disease. Recently there has been a lot of concern about breast cancer, often with excessive worry and inappropriate methods.

"Some of it is the wrong way to do a breast exam, grabbing the breast with your whole hand and squeezing it, you definitely feel a lump, it's just a normal gland!"

Many women will have breast lumps or nodules, but most lumps and nodules are not cancer and there are four common conditions that need to be identified.

Mastopexy.
These are divided into lobular enlargement nodules and cysts. Lumps in nodules are irregularly shaped, often multiple, in the form of patches, nodules or strips, and are not adherent to the skin or deep muscle membranes; cysts have distinct borders and a softer texture.

Mammary gland enlargement may be mild to moderately painful to the touch locally. The lumps may vary with the menstrual cycle, often becoming painful and larger during menstruation and then less painful after menstruation, with a subsequent reduction in size of the lumps and nodules.

Mastitis.
Most often occurs in lactating women. However, among non-lactating mastitis, plasma cell mastitis, a chronic non-bacterial inflammation of the breast, is more common today.

It is often associated with breast swelling and pain, redness and swelling, and hard lumps can often be felt in the breast, which may form a breast abscess as the condition progresses.

Breast fibroids.
This is the most common benign tumour of the breast, most often found in young women and rare after the age of 40. The lump is mostly regular and round, usually no more than 4 cm in diameter, firm, with clear borders and a high degree of mobility, and no adhesions to the skin.

Fibroadenoma is painless and the growth rate of fibroids is slow, within 5 mm within a year is normal.

Breast cancer.
In the earlier stages there is usually no obvious pain or discomfort. Breast cancer tumours grow rapidly, have an unsmooth surface, are hard, poorly defined and cannot be easily pushed.

This lump is often large once detected and in advanced stages the local skin becomes ulcerated, infiltrated and painful. It can lead to nipple invagination and life-threatening metastases to the axillae, supraclavicular lymph nodes and organs.

It is recommended that, in the face of lumps, women should have regular annual mammograms.

It is also advisable to perform a self-touch examination every time 2 to 3 days after menstruation to see if there are any changes in the shape of the breast, pain, lumps, overflow, etc. It must be noted that palpation should be done with the fingers rather than the fingertips, and the breasts should not be grasped and pinched with the hands.

How do I do a breast self-examination?
During the self-examination, the upper half of the body is completely naked, stand upright in front of the mirror, cross your arms and observe the shape and contour of both breasts for any abnormalities, then raise your arms and observe the shape, skin, nipples and contour of both breasts for any abnormalities. The general order of touching the breasts with the fingers and abdomen is above, inside, below and outside in order of whether there are any lumps.

Then lie on your back with your shoulders slightly elevated, raise your right arm and touch your left hand to the breast, the caudal lobe of the breast and the right armpit for lumps, then switch to your right hand and touch the left side, also noting any lumps in the areola area of the nipple.

Once a hard lump is found in the breast, regardless of its size and nature, it should be promptly identified by a gynaecological consultation, and even if it is not a malignant lesion, timely intervention should be made in accordance with the doctor.

Of course, ordinary self-examination is not enough. Women under 40 years of age should have an annual specialist check-up and breast ultrasound; women over 40 years of age should have a mammogram in addition to an annual specialist check-up and breast ultrasound to detect early breast cancer.