Cancer is a devastating disease and is everyone’s worst nightmare. Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer. Over 500,000 women die from breast cancer each year. The risk for women of getting it in their lifetime is about 1 in 8. The bad news is tha
t breast cancer is NOT preventable. The cause of breast cancer remains unknown and there is no known way to prevent breast cancer at this time. There are several effective ways to reduce—but not eliminate—the risk of breast cancer in women at high risk. The good news is that if it’s detected early enough, it’s easier to treat and prevent from spreading. When breast cancer is detected early and treated promptly, suffering and ultimately the loss of life can be significantly reduced. For early stage breast cancer, there are more treatment options, treatment can be less disfiguring and less toxic and survival is improved.
October is the breast cancer awareness month and fortunately, breast cancer awareness is at an all-time high. Many women’s lives are being saved by a heightened understanding of the disease and early detection. And the sole purpose and intent of this post is to let all women know that the ONLY key to surviving breast cancer is early detection and treatment. There is a WEALTH of information available on the internet about breast cancer – causes, risks, symptoms, treatments etc. But since “awareness” is all about nipping it in the bud, I will cover the bare essentials that ALL women should know.
Common Myths about Breast Cancer
MYTH: Only women with a family history get breast cancer
FACT: Every woman has some risk of breast cancer. The majority of women who get breast cancer have no family history and no identifiable risk factors. Having said that, if a first-degree relative (a parent, sibling, or child) has had or has breast cancer, risk of developing the disease approximately doubles. Having two first-degree relatives with the disease increases the risk even more.
MYTH: Breast cancer only affects older women
FACT: While it’s true that the risk of breast cancer increases as we grow older, breast cancer can occur at any age. From birth to age 39, the risk is less than 0.5%; from age 40–59, the risk is 4% risk; from age 60–79, the risk is nearly 7%. Assuming you live to age 90, the risk of getting breast cancer over the course of an entire lifetime is 14.3%.
MYTH: Only women get breast cancer.
FACT: Men DO get breast cancer, although it is rare.
MYTH: Small breasted women do not get breast cancer.
FACT: Every woman is at risk regardless of breast size, shape, race or socioeconomic status
MYTH: Regular breast exams detect all breast cancer in it’s early stages.
FACT: While breast cancers may be found earlier with regular exams, all cancers are not detected. Most breast cancers have been present for 8 – 10 years before a lump is found. Even mammograms are not 100% accurate. Up to 40% of mammograms do not detect breast cancer in younger women.
MYTH: If you have a risk factor for breast cancer, you’re likely to get the disease.
FACT: No. Getting breast cancer is not a certainty, even if you have one of the stronger risk factors, like a breast cancer gene abnormality.
MYTH: Most breast lumps are cancerous
FACT: Not at all. Roughly 80% of lumps in women’s breasts are caused by benign (noncancerous) changes, cysts, or other conditions. However, all lumps MUST be reported. If a lump is detected a mammogram, ultrasound or biopsy is conducted to determine whether a lump is cancerous.
MYTH: Breast cancer always comes in the form of a lump
FACT: Not necessarily. Women should also be on the alert for other kinds of changes that may be signs of cancer. These include swelling; skin irritation or dimpling; breast or nipple pain; nipple retraction (turning inward); redness, scaliness, or thickening of the nipple or breast skin; or a discharge other than breast milk. Women with a rare type of breast cancer called inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) rarely have a breast lump.
MYTH: Using anti-perspirants causes breast cancer.
FACT: There is no evidence that the active ingredient in anti-perspirants influences breast cancer risk.
MYTH: Wearing a tight bra increases risk of cancer
FACT: Neither the type of bra you wear nor the tightness of your underwear or other clothing has any connection to breast cancer risk.
How to do a breast self-exam
There is a simple measure that all of us can take to help prevent breast cancer that costs absolutely nothing and takes only a few minutes i.e. Monthly Breast Self Exams (BSE). Women should begin giving themselves BSEs in their 20s. The value of BSE is that it helps a woman become familiar with how her breasts normally feel and to notice any changes. There are different methods and positions to do a breast exam. All methods should be followed to ensure thoroughness. The key idea is to check for any irregularities. Choose a day of the month when your breasts are not tender or swollen.
Standing up (Mirror Method)
Step 1: Stand in front of a mirror. Place your arms so that they are in a relaxed position by your sides. With flat fingers, feel around the entire breast for any lumps or knots. Look for any contour changes in your breasts, such as swelling, dimpling or nipple irregularities (a nipple that looks different; possibly inverted, redness, soreness, rash, or swelling. Again, use your left hand for the right breast and vice versa.
Step 2: Raise your hands above your head and repeat the same process. Now, gently squeeze each nipple between your fore finger and thumb to check for discharge. It shouldn’t be yellow or tinted with red. It is important to understand that breast tissue is found all the way from the nipple to under the armpit. Be sure to check the whole breast from top to bottom, side to side including the underarm area.
Step 3: Place the palms of your hands on your hips and flex the muscles in your chest. Check for any abnormalities once again.
Lying Down (Pillow Method)
Step 1: Lie down so your breast tissue spreads evenly over your chest wall and is as thin as possible
Step 2: Put a pillow underneath your right shoulder and stretch your right arm behind your head.
Step 3: Arrange your left hand so the fingers are flat. Press gently with small, coin-sized circular motions around the entire breast. Next, move in a vertical direction from top to bottom. Make note of any lumps or irregularities and be sure to cover the entire breast. Begin with a soft touch and increase the pressure until you can feel the tissue and then rib cage. Make sure to cover the entire breast–from collarbone, to armpit, to cleavage.
Step 4: Squeeze your nipple to check for discharge that may occur. Lumps can also occur in the nipple, so don’t forget to feel those too.
Step 5: Repeat this process for your left breast.
If you do feel something, don’t panic. The vast majority of lumps are not cancerous. It could simply be a cyst, or just natural lumpiness. If you have any doubts get it checked out by your doctor as soon as possible.
Mammograms
It is important to know that self-Exams alone will not detect most lumps or masses early enough. Regular mammograms are the most reliable way to catch breast cancer early when it’s most treatable. A Mammogram is an x-ray exam of the breast. As women age, the risk of breas
t cancer increases. For most women, high-quality mammography screening should begin at age 40 and should take place at least every two years. Screening should continue throughout a woman’s lifetime. Breast Self Examination (BSE) may alert women to any changes in her breasts, but it is not a substitute for mammography screening. Without a mammogram, women may not know they have breast cancer until it is advanced and much harder to treat. Mammograms can find breast cancer as much as two years before a woman or a doctor can feel a lump. Finding and treating it early, before it spreads helps 97 percent of women survive five years or more. However, Breast examination by you or your healthcare provider is still very important. About 25% of breast cancers are found only on breast examination (not on the mammogram), about 35% are found on mammography alone, and 40% are found by both physical exam and mammography. Keep both bases covered.
What to expect when having a mammography
Women are advised to schedule a mammogram at a time when breast are least tender. It is also required that they do not apply deodorant, perfumes, powder or lotions before the mammogram as they may show up as white spots on the X-ray. A specially trained radiologist (a woman) performs the mammogram. The woman is asked to undress from the waist up only and stand next to the x-ray machine. Each breast (one-by-one) is compressed between an X-ray plate and a plastic plate, and this causes discomfort for many women. The breast needs to be compressed to spread tissue apart and to keep the tissue still for a clearer picture. Spreading it out also ensures that the image can be taken with a lower X-ray dose. Two flat surfaces will compress one breast first, then the other for a few seconds. Compression is necessary to produce the best pictures using the lowest amount of radiation possible. The entire procedure does not take more than 30 minutes.
It is important to know that even mammograms are not fool-proof. A small percentage of cancers will be missed. Also it may show cells that look abnormal and a biopsy may be performed before it is determined there is no cancer. But despite the limitations, they are the best tool we have to decrease suffering and death from breast cancer.
Conclusion
Naturally, breast cancer elicits so many fears, including those relating to surgery, death, loss of body image and loss of sexuality. But a breast cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. Every day there are more and more breast cancer survivors due to advances in treatments and drug therapy. In addition, breast cancer research is the most well-funded of all cancer research, so new and improved methods of treatment are being developed all the time. But as they say…Prevention …or in the case of breast cancer…early detection is a million times better than cure!
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