October is Breast Most cancers Consciousness Month — a worldwide marketing campaign to lift consciousness of the devastating illness and promote early detection via screenings.
Dr. Elizabeth Comen, a medical oncologist specializing in breast most cancers at NYU Langone Well being and best-selling writer of “All in Her Head,” shared with us the whole lot you want to find out about breast most cancers, from signs to screening protocol and remedy choices.
How involved ought to an individual be about getting breast most cancers?
About one in eight ladies will likely be recognized with breast most cancers of their lifetime. This implies it’s so important that ladies perceive what their particular person danger elements for breast most cancers are, and when they need to begin screening for breast most cancers, in order that ideally, if a girl is recognized, she’s recognized on the earliest potential stage.
What are some danger elements for breast most cancers?
There are a variety of various danger elements for breast most cancers, a few of that are modifiable, which means we are able to change them, and a few of that are nonmodifiable, which means we are able to’t change them.
A few of the nonmodifiable danger elements embody merely getting older, being a girl or having a household historical past of most cancers. That final level is actually vital — that’s your loved ones historical past of most cancers in your mom’s facet and your father’s facet. And that features any sort of most cancers, corresponding to breast most cancers, ovarian most cancers and prostate most cancers.
When it comes to modifiable danger elements, there are a selection of issues that you are able to do to lower your danger of not solely breast most cancers however different cancers as effectively. You possibly can keep a wholesome weight and an energetic way of life.
Weight loss program is actually vital as effectively. Sustaining a food regimen that’s extra fruit- and vegetable-forward versus processed meats and processed merchandise is important to lowering your danger of a number of cancers.
One other factor that may be actually vital is lowering alcohol consumption. We all know that even a drink a day is related to an elevated danger of breast most cancers and different cancers as effectively.
What are some basic and lesser-known breast most cancers indicators we must always pay attention to?
After we take into consideration breast most cancers, we frequently consider a mass. However not each lady with breast most cancers will current with a hardened lump.
Now, in fact, you probably have one thing you’re feeling in your physique, it’s best to all the time speak to your physician about it.
Additionally speak along with your physician you probably have new or irregular discharge out of your nipple, you probably have a rash in your breast that hasn’t gone away or in case you discover any new lumps or bumps in areas — not simply particularly of what we take into consideration within the breast — but additionally within the neck space or beneath the armpit.
When ought to ladies begin getting mammograms?
For average-risk ladies, beginning at 40, it’s best to have a yearly mammogram, and chances are you’ll must couple that with further imaging, corresponding to an ultrasound. It’s important that you just speak to your physician, nonetheless, about your private danger elements and household historical past.
Are you able to stroll us via what occurs throughout a mammogram?
Once you get a mammogram, a particular technician will stroll you thru the entire course of. Your breast will likely be compressed between two plates in an X-ray-like machine that helps visualize the breast tissue in numerous totally different formations.
These pictures will then be seen by a radiologist. The hope is that you’ll expertise very minimal discomfort. In case you’re fearful or experiencing ache of any type, please speak to the technician about how we are able to make you extra snug.
What about self-breast exams?
I like to recommend that shortly after your interval, when your breasts are much less tender, you do a self-breast examination so to perceive what your regular breast tissue appears like. Speak along with your physician about any issues.
If I get recognized with breast most cancers, what are my remedy choices?
In the case of being recognized with breast most cancers, we’ve many alternative remedy choices.
Some ladies have breast most cancers that’s confined to the breast and maybe lymph nodes beneath the armpit. Some ladies could have what we seek advice from as metastatic breast most cancers, which suggests breast most cancers cells have unfold from the native space of the breast to a different website of the physique.
And there are totally different ways in which we deal with these totally different levels of breast most cancers. The bottom line is, there’s a group of medical doctors, from medical oncologists, surgeons and radiation oncologists to greatest determine the remedy plan for you. The excellent news is, over the previous couple of a long time, there’s been large evolution, hope and alter within the panorama for a way we deal with breast most cancers.
Elizabeth Comen, MD, is a medical oncologist and affiliate professor of drugs on the NYU Langone Well being Perlmutter Most cancers Middle. She is an internationally acknowledged breast most cancers oncologist and girls’s well being specialist who focuses on caring for sufferers and advocating for girls’s well being. Her not too long ago printed e-book, “All in Her Head,” unpacks the legacy behind pervasive gaps in ladies’s well being care.
