What are the signs and symptoms of breast cancer?
1- Breast mass or tumor:
Suspected cancer lumps are firm or hard to the touch, sometimes immobile and sticky around. As mentioned earlier, most of these lumps are solitary and painless. It should be noted that judging whether the lump is benign or malignant is the responsibility of the attending physician and will be possible after careful examination.
2- Discharge from the nipple:
Breast discharge can be seen in different colors (white, brown, blue, gray, red, green or colorless). The discharge caused by breast cancer is usually clear blood or bloody or in some cases colorless.
Bloody or watery discharge that is spontaneous and comes out of a breast and a duct, or is accompanied by a lump in the breast, increases the suspicion of cancer.
3- Breast skin changes:
These changes appear in the form of indentation or stretching of the breast skin. Indentation of the breast skin may be permanently and clearly present or it may be seen in certain cases of breast examination. Stretching of the skin, although it is an important symptom, is not a definite sign of cancer, and sometimes it is seen following benign breast diseases.
4- Nipple changes:
In some people, nipple indentation may occur after breastfeeding or after puberty, which usually returns to the first state by itself or by manipulation. While in cancer, this indentation has a constant state, and with a careful examination of the breast, the presence of a gland may be determined under the nipple and areola of the breast.
Redness and itchiness of the nipple, along with its scaling and cracking, can be a sign of a type of breast cancer called Paget’s, unless proven otherwise.
5- The size of the axillary lymph nodes:
What is of particular importance is that the size of the lymph nodes under the armpit can be due to benign lesions and even inflammations and trauma to the hand or breast area. Therefore, although this symptom leads the patient to further investigations, it should be known that this condition is not alarming from the beginning.
6- Breast size change:
Sometimes, due to the excessive size of a tumor or significant inflammation around smaller tumors, the breast on one side is clearly larger than the opposite side. Of course, the size of the two breasts in healthy people is not completely the same, but the size of one breast compared to the other side, which has recently been created, should be taken into consideration, and the absence of lumps and the health of the breast should be confirmed by performing an examination. Sometimes, benign tumors as well as trauma to the breast, bleeding or inflammation caused by the accumulation of milk in the breast (especially in pregnant and lactating women) and large cysts cause this asymmetry, which can be detected by examination and using diagnostic methods. , their type can be determined (3 and 2).
Although it is not possible to prevent breast cancer, but with early and timely diagnosis, there is a greater chance of successful treatment of this disease.
This post is written by b_1300