It’s important to check your breasts regularly because the earlier breast cancer is diagnosed, the better the chance of being healed.
When should one check her breasts?
Every woman’s breasts are different, so there’s no special technique or training to check one’s breasts. One only needs to know how her breasts normally look like or feel.
When Checking What Should Be Expected To Be Found?
Usually one should look for lumps but there are other signs and symptoms one should be looking for like a change in the look or feel of the breast and the nipple also nipple discharge.
How Often Should One Check Her Breasts?
Make sure your breasts are checked regularly for instance while you’re in the shower, before bed or after the gym.
Does Any Of The Signs Mean One Has Cancer?
Put this in mind when checking, your breasts might feel tender and lumpy around the time of your period. Also during pregnancy, your breasts might get bigger and feel tender or sore.
For breast lumps or lumpiness, Most women find their breasts feel lumpy because breast tissue naturally has a bumpy texture just that some have more lumpiness in their breasts than others. Thus in most cases, this lumpiness has nothing to worry about.
When checking, If the lumpiness is felt throughout the breast and feels like your other breast, then it’s probably normal breast tissue.
Warning Of Cancer.
If you find a new lump (or any change) that feels different from the rest of your breast or your other breast or feel something that’s different from what you have never felt please check the specialist, doctor.
If your breast nipple discharge, Liquid leaking from your one nipple without squeezing the or bloody or clear (not milky) then you may also need to check a specialist because the nipple discharge can also be an infection or other condition that needs treatment.
Common Breast Cancer Signs and Symptoms
- Change in shape of the breast(s) an increase in size or visible breast difference like swelling and redness in one or both breasts.
- Changes in the appearance of one or both nipples without forgetting nipple discharge other than breast milk.
- General pain in/on any part of the breast with lumps or nodes felt on or inside of the breast.
Other More Specifics Symptoms Include
- Irritated or itchy breasts
- Increase in breast size or shape (over a short period of time).
- A breast lump or thickening.
- Change in breast color.
- Redness or pitting of the breast skin (like the skin of an orange).
- Changes in touch (may feel hard, tender or warm).
- Peeling or flaking of the nipple skin or nipple turning inward.
- A lump in the underarm area.
Types Of Breast Cancer
Breast cancer occurs in two categories which are invasive and noninvasive.
1. Invasive (infiltrating) Breast Cancer
The cancerous cells break through normal breast tissue barriers and spread to other parts of the body through the bloodstream and lymph nodes.
Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), sometimes called infiltrating ductal carcinoma, is the most common type of breast cancer. This type of cancer breaks through the wall of the milk duct and begun to invade the tissues of the breast. Over time, invasive ductal carcinoma can spread to the lymph nodes and possibly to other areas of the body.
2. Noninvasive (in situ) breast cancer
The Cancerous cells remain in a particular location of the breast, without spreading to surrounding tissue, lobules or ducts.
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer. It originates from inside the milk ducts and breast tissue that cover the internal organs. Its known to be non-invasive because it doesn’t spread beyond the milk duct into any normal surrounding breast tissue. It not life-threatening, but having it can increase the risk of developing an invasive breast cancer later on.
3. Inflammatory Breast Cancer
It’s an aggressive rare form of breast cancer which starts with the reddening and swelling of the breast instead of a distinct lump. It tends to grow and spread quickly, with symptoms worsening within days or even hours.
Its Symptoms include:
- Redness of the breast: Redness involving the entire breast or part is a hallmark of inflammatory breast cancer. The redness comes and goes.
- Aching or burning: Your breast may ache or feel tender.
- Swelling of the breast: Part of or all of the breast may be swollen, enlarged, and hard.
- Orange-peel appearance: Your breast may swell and start to look like the peel of a navel orange.
- Swelling of lymph nodes: The lymph nodes under your arm or above the collarbone may be swollen.
- Flattening or inversion of the nipple: The nipple may go flat or turn inward.
- Warmth: The breast may feel warm.
- Other skin changes: The skin of the breast might look pink or bruised, or you may have what looks like ridges, welts, or hives on your breast.
4. Men Breast Cancer
You may be thinking that Men can’t get breast cancer because they don’t have breast you are wrong both men and women have breast tissue.
The difference is, various hormones in women’s bodies stimulate the breast tissue to grow into full breasts while men’s bodies normally don’t make much of the breast-stimulating hormones.
As a result, their breast tissue usually stays flat and small.
But sometimes men can develop real breast gland tissue because they take certain medicines or have abnormal hormone levels. But breast cancer in men is rare, few cases are available to study.
Factors which can increase a man’s risk of getting breast cancer:
1. High estrogen levels
Breast cell growth is stimulated by the presence of estrogen. Men can have high estrogen levels as a result of, being overweight, taking hormonal medicine which increases the production of estrogen, having been exposed to estrogens in the environment such as fed fat beef cattle, being heavy users of alcohol; can limit the liver’s ability to regulate blood estrogen level.
2. Klinefelter syndrome.
Men with Klinefelter syndrome have lower levels of androgens (male hormones) and higher levels of estrogen (female hormones). Therefore, they have a higher risk of developing gynecomastia (breast tissue growth that is non-cancerous) and breast cancer.
3. The family history of breast cancer or genetic mutations.
Family history can increase the risk of breast cancer in men — particularly if other men in the family have had breast cancer.
4. Radiation exposure.
If a man has been treated with radiation to the chest, such as for lymphoma, he has an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
Before breast cancer treatment commences, your cancer is classified based on where in the breast the disease is and how it has grown. Although breast cancer is a serious diagnosis, keep in mind that treatment these days are better at controlling the disease than they used to be.
