Questions To Ask The Doctor
- Do you know the stage of the cancer?
- If not, how and when will you find out the stage of the cancer?
- Would you explain to me what the stage means in my case?
- Based on the stage of the cancer, how long do you think Ill live?
- Do you know if my cancer has any of these proteins: estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, or the HER2 protein?
- What does it mean if my cancer has any of these proteins?
- What will happen next?
There are many ways to treat breast cancer.
Surgery and radiation are used to treat cancer in a specific part of the body . They do not affect the rest of the body.
Chemotherapy, hormone treatment, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy drugs go through the whole body. They can reach cancer cells almost anywhere in the body.
Doctors often use more than one treatment for breast cancer. The treatment plan thats best for you will depend on:
- The cancer’s stage and grade
- If the cancer has specific proteins, like the HER2 protein or hormone receptors
- The chance that a type of treatment will cure the cancer or help in some way
- Your age
- Other health problems you have
- Your feelings about the treatment and the side effects that come with it
Breast Exam By Your Doctor
The same guidelines for self-exams provided above are true for breast exams done by your doctor or other healthcare professional. They wont hurt you, and your doctor may do a breast exam during your annual visit.
If youre having symptoms that concern you, its a good idea to have your doctor do a breast exam. During the exam, your doctor will check both of your breasts for abnormal spots or signs of breast cancer.
Your doctor may also check other parts of your body to see if the symptoms youre having could be related to another condition.
* You Are At Average Risk If You Have:
- no symptoms of breast cancer
- no history of invasive breast cancer
- no history of ductal or lobular carcinoma in situ
- no history of atypia
- no family history of breast cancer in a first-degree relative
- no suggestion or evidence of a hereditary syndrome such as a BRCA mutation
- no history of mantle radiation
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Breast Pain And Breast Cancer In Men
As with breast cancer in women, breast cancer in men is often painless. That said, it tends to push on nearby structures more rapidly than a tumor would in most women. In addition, hormone-induced breast pain is also, of course, less likely to occur in men. If you are a man experiencing breast pain, play it safe. Breast cancer can and does occur in men, and though only one in 100 breast cancers occurs in men, that’s still far too frequent.
Breast Changes During Your Lifetime That Are Not Cancer
Most women have changes in the breasts at different times during their lifetime.
- Before or during your menstrual periods, your breasts may feel swollen, tender, or painful. You may also feel one or more lumps during this time because of extra fluid in your breasts. Your health care provider may have you come back for a return visit at a different time in your menstrual cycle to see if the lump has changed.
- During pregnancy, your breasts may feel lumpy. This is usually because the glands that produce milk are increasing in number and getting larger. While breastfeeding, you may get a condition called mastitis. This happens when a milk duct becomes blocked. Mastitis causes the breast to look red and feel lumpy, warm, and tender. It may be caused by an infection and it is often treated with antibiotics. Sometimes the duct may need to be drained.
- As you approach menopause, your hormone levels change. This can make your breasts feel tender, even when you are not having your menstrual period. Your breasts may also feel more lumpy than they did before.
- If you are taking hormones your breasts may become more dense. This can make a mammogram harder to interpret. Be sure to let your health care provider know if you are taking hormones.
- After menopause, your hormone levels drop. You may stop having any lumps, pain, or nipple discharge that you used to have.
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What Will Happen After Treatment
Youll be glad when treatment is over. For years after treatment ends, you will see your cancer doctor. Be sure to go to all of these follow-up visits. You will have exams, blood tests, and maybe other tests to see if the cancer has come back.
At first, your visits may be every few months. Then, the longer youre cancer-free, the less often the visits are needed.
If you still have a breast , youll need to get a mammogram every year. Depending on your treatment, you might need other tests as well, such as yearly pelvic exams or bone density tests.
Having cancer and dealing with treatment can be hard, but it can also be a time to look at your life in new ways. You might be thinking about how to improve your health. Call us at 1-800-227-2345 or talk to your cancer care team to find out what you can do to feel better.
You cant change the fact that you have cancer. What you can change is how you live the rest of your life making healthy choices and feeling as well as you can.
What’s The Best Way For Younger Women To Screen For Breast Cancer
The American Cancer Society recommends that all women know how their breasts look and feel and report any changes to their doctor. The ACS states that research has not shown a clear benefit of performing regular breast self-exams. Talk with your doctor about the pros and cons of breast self-exam.
Regular breast exams done at least every 3 years by your doctor are recommended for women beginning at age 20. Expert groups dont all agree when women should start getting mammograms and you should discuss with your doctor whats right for you. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening every 2 years from ages 50 through 74 and also that the decision to start yearly screening mammograms before age 50 should be an individual one..
Talk to your doctor about when you should begin to have mammograms. For younger women, digital mammography may be an alternate to a standard mammogram. Digital mammography is better able to see abnormalities in dense breast tissue.
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What Are The Risk Factors For Breast Cancer
Being a woman and getting older are the main risk factors for breast cancer.
Studies have shown that your risk for breast cancer is due to a combination of factors. The main factors that influence your risk include being a woman and getting older. Most breast cancers are found in women who are 50 years old or older.
Some women will get breast cancer even without any other risk factors that they know of. Having a risk factor does not mean you will get the disease, and not all risk factors have the same effect. Most women have some risk factors, but most women do not get breast cancer. If you have breast cancer risk factors, talk with your doctor about ways you can lower your risk and about screening for breast cancer.
Tests To Determine Specific Types Of Treatment
You’ll also need tests that show whether the cancer will respond to specific types of treatment. The results of these tests can give your doctors a more complete picture of the type of cancer you have and how best to treat it. The types of test you could be offered are discussed below.
In some cases, breast cancer cells can be stimulated to grow by hormones that occur naturally in your body, such as oestrogen and progesterone.
If this is the case, the cancer may be treated by stopping the effects of the hormones, or by lowering the level of these hormones in your body. This is known as “hormone therapy”.
During a hormone receptor test, a sample of cancer cells will be taken from your breast and tested to see if they respond to either oestrogen or progesterone. If the hormone is able to attach to the cancer cells , they’re known as “hormone receptor positive”.
While hormones can encourage the growth of some types of breast cancer, other types are stimulated by a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 .
These types of cancer can be diagnosed using a HER2 test, and treated with medication to block the effects of HER2. This is known as “biological” or “targeted” therapy.
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Further Tests For Breast Cancer
If a diagnosis of breast cancer is confirmed, more tests will be needed to determine the stage and grade of the cancer, and to work out the best method of treatment.
If your cancer was detected through the NHS Breast Screening Programme, you’ll have further tests in the screening centre before being referred for treatment.
Prognosis For Breast Cancer In Cats
Cats usually survive for about 12 months with breast cancer, but the survival time depends on the treatment and the time of diagnosis.
Unfortunately, breast cancer in cats carries a poor prognosis. This is likely because, by the time the disease is noticed, its often very well established and has started to spread.
The average survival time of cats with breast cancer is 12 months. Cats tend to survive longer if surgery and chemotherapy are undertaken, and if the lump is smaller at time of diagnosis.
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Parents Must Communicate Concerns To Doctors
Regardless of how rare Hannah’s cancer is, some doctors said the case illustrates the need for parents to communicate their concerns to doctors — and for doctors to take into account any potential health threats, however unusual.
“What bears emphasizing is that: a) this is incredibly rare, and teenagers need not worry about this happening to them and b) physicians need to be aware that, while rare, this can happen, so that new lumps should be taken seriously,” said Dr. George Sledge, professor of Medicine and Pathology at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and editor-in-chief of the journal Clinical Breast Cancer.
Lichtenfeld agreed. “Hannah’s case, which thankfully appears to be having an excellent outcome, is extremely unusual and should not be cause for undue alarm,” he said. “As with any health issue, parents who are concerned about any seemingly unusual physical change should talk to their family’s health care professional.”
Likewise, Hannah told KCAL that she hopes her experience will help other children like her keep open lines of communication with their parents when it comes to health issues.
“I want to set an example for all the kids in the world, that if there’s something wrong with your body, you tell your parents,” she said.
Michelle Schlief and the ABC News Medical Unit contributed to this report.
About Dr Joanna Woodnutt Mrcvs
Dr. Joanna Woodnutt is a small animal veterinarian and writer who is passionate about helping owners to learn more about their pets in order to improve animal welfare. She loves to write and wants to empower owners to make the best decisions for their pets by giving them all the information they need. In her spare time, she takes consultations on the small island of Guernsey.
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Money And Financial Support
If you have to reduce or stop work because of your cancer, you may find it difficult to cope financially.
If you have cancer or you’re caring for someone with cancer, you may be entitled to financial support, for example:
- if you have a job but can’t work because of your illness, you’re entitled to Statutory Sick Pay from your employer
- if you don’t have a job and can’t work because of your illness, you may be entitled to Employment and Support Allowance
- if you’re caring for someone with cancer, you may be entitled to Carers Allowance
- you may be eligible for other benefits if you have children living at home, or if you have a low household income
Find out what help is available to you as soon as possible. The social worker at your hospital will be able to give you the information you need.
Can Squeezing Or Being Hit In The Breast Cause Cancer
An injury, such as falling or being hit in the chest, will not cause breast cancer. Squeezing or pinching the breast or nipple will not cause breast cancer either.
It may cause bruising and swelling to the breast, which can be tender or painful to touch.
Sometimes an injury can lead to a benign lump known as fat necrosis. This is scar tissue that can form when the body naturally repairs the damaged fatty breast tissue.
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Other Types Of Breast Cancer
Other less common types of breast cancer include invasive lobular breast cancer, which develops in the cells that line the milk-producing lobules, inflammatory breast cancer and Paget’s disease of the breast.
It’s possible for breast cancer to spread to other parts of the body, usually through the lymph nodes or the bloodstream. If this happens, it’s known as “secondary” or “metastatic” breast cancer.
Guidelines For Genetic Testing For Breast Cancer
About 10% of breast cancers are related to inheritance of damaged genes. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the genes most frequently implicated, but there are many other genes, such as PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2, that need to be considered as well. Genetic testing usually starts with a family member who has already developed a breast or ovarian cancer. If this individual is positive for a mutation then all of the other family members can be tested for the same mutation to determine who is high risk and who is not. If no one in the family is known to carry a mutation then the test is considered non-informative. That means the test was unable to tell us which relatives in the family are high risk. People who have inherited a damaged gene are at increased risk for breast and other cancers. The risk may be as high as 80% depending on the specific gene and family history. Guidelines for determining whether an individual should get genetic testing or not are constantly evolving. General criteria include:
- Someone in your family is known to carry a mutated gene
- Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry
- You were diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50
- A man in your family has been diagnosed with breast cancer
- You were diagnosed with ovarian cancer
- There are multiple breast cancers on one side of your family
- Cancer was diagnosed in both breasts
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Screening Guidelines For Women At Above
MSKs breast cancer experts have developed separate guidelines for women who have a higher-than-average breast cancer risk for the following reasons:
- family history of breast cancer in a first-degree relative
- history of atypical hyperplasia
- history of lobular carcinoma in situ
- history of mantle radiation before the age of 32
- genetic predisposition for breast cancer
If you have an above-average risk of breast cancer for the reasons listed above, MSK doctors recommend the guidelines below.
Lifetime Risks For Breast Cancer Development
This post will examine the risks for breast cancer that you can NOT change.
Most of us have heard the infamous statistic that
the risk factor for developing breast cancer is 1 in 8.
This statistic is interpreted by most women as 1 in every 8 women will develop breast cancer. However, this figure is slightly misleading and here is why
Firstly, this statistic, 1 in 8, is what is known as an absolute risk. The absolute risk measures your risk of developing a particular disease over a certain time period. The absolute risk can also be expressed as a percentage or a decimal. So, for example, take an absolute risk of 1 in 30 for developing a disease in your lifetime, this can also be expressed as a 30% risk or a 0.3 risk.
It is the over a certain time period that is a very important factor. For instance, a 30-year-old American woman does NOT have a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer. In fact, the risk of breast cancer is 1 in 227 at the age of 30.
Furthermore, each individual womans risk of breast cancer is dependent on many factors both biological and environmental.
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How Is Breast Cancer In Children Treated
The treatment for cancer of the breast in children varies and will depend on the tumor or type of cancer.
Children with benign fibroadenomas dont usually need treatment. Instead, theyll be carefully monitored for changes that might indicate concern, such as changes in size or characteristics of a mass. In many cases, the fibroadenomas will disappear without any treatment at all.
Children with malignant breast cancer will need treatment. Theyll receive care from a pediatric oncology team.
Treatments normally include:
- radiation therapy to target and kill the cancer cells and stop the growth of new cancer cells
- surgery to remove the tumor
New therapies, including targeted drug therapies to attack cancer cells without harming other cells in the body, are an option. Treatment will also depend on the childs overall health and whether other cancers are present.
The pediatric oncology team will help develop the appropriate plan for each child.