Breast Cancer: Self Exams and Lab Tests

Breast cancer is one of the most common diseases among women, as many as 25-35% women suffering from this disease. This cancer is best treated in the early stages and completely curable if detected early. Therefore, examining the breasts regularly is the best way to detect abnormal signs to be treated at the earliest. Women can test their risk of breast cancer by these quite simple methods.

Self exams

In the lying position

Lie on your back, put a pillow under your right shoulder. Use 3 fingers between left hand and breast exam by pressing slightly right, medium and strong down the circle, avoiding fingers aching from the skin. Move in a circle shape from top to bottom. Feel the changes in the breast, touching the upper and lower wishbone and in your armpit area. Same use the right hand for left breast examination.

Check the mirror

Place your hands behind his head or his hands on the side. Check if there are any abnormalities in both breasts: drainage, the pull, the concave skin or nipple, or any changes to the skin surface. Squeeze the nipple see any discharge or not.

Check in at bath

Raise right arm, right hand at the nape. Using the fingers of the left hand closed touching the right part of the mammary gland. Gently touching carefully to detect tumors or changes under the skin. Continue doing this with the left breast.

Lab tests

Self-screening is an important step for the early detection of breast cancer. However, to get more accurate results, women should take tests and examinations in hospitals or medical centers. Here is one of the diagnostic methods to detect breast cancer

FNA – Fine Needle Aspiration

Using a small needle aspiration to obtain a sufficient sample used as a cytology test. For thick and smaller tumor, doctors can cut wide to analyze tumor pathology. This breast cancer test can indicate retrieved cells are cancer characterized or not, but can not distinguish between local cancer or invasive cancer. This is a simple operation, painless, without anesthesia.

Whole tumor biopsies

These are performed when clinical symptoms and diagnoses above does not allow fully confirmed benign lesions or the aspiration does not give any definitive diagnosis of breast cancer. Specimens were taken by biopsy under ultrasound guidance and local anesthesia, without hospitalization.

However, today the whole tumor biopsy is done gradually less because FNA – Fine Needle Aspiration showed increasingly high accuracy.

Cytology

This test is a malignant diagnosis complement factor, not only in tumors but also can perform in axillary lymph nodes and provide necessary morphological materials before making the treatments. These tests help assess response to treatment: find the estrogen receptor, free estradiol levels measured in blood,…

Apart from the above test methods, there are multiple diagnostic imaging facilities, other breast cancer screenings used in breast cancer diagnosis include computerized tomography CT scan, magnetic resonance imaging MRI, mammography, ultrasound,…

Diagnostic and early detection are very important in the treatment of breast cancer and other cancers. You should have the screening of breast and gynecologic periodically each year, from 35 years of age even without any clinical symptoms.

Hello Health Group does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.