cancer clinic
Cancer Immunity Clinic
01
Symptoms
A hard, irregular, and normally painless lump is felt in the breast.
Also, there may be sudden bleeding or secretion from the nipple. There may be dimples on the skin over the breast or nipple may be sunken. A lump may be felt in a armpit, and there may be eczema of the nipple, mammalgia, etc.
80% of brest lump cases are benign tumors
When self-examine the breasts, a lump may be felt. 80% of actually felt lumps is benign tumors.
Fibroadenoma is a hard, movable lump, which is commonly diagnosed in young women and easily cured by simple resection. However, if the breast lump is left unattended, it may cause the disease worsen, so, when there are any abnormalities in the breast, it is recommended to undergo thorough examination as soon as possible.
Breast cancer is related to life style as well as high risk group, family history
When there is a patient in family members even in close relatives, breast cancer risk rate is higher. The exact causes of breast cancer are not discovered yet, it is speculated that multiple causes work together.
The longer you are exposed to female hormone, the higher breast cancer risk rate is. Risk of breast cancer is higher in women who began her period before the age of 12, who have no experience of pregnancy, who had first child after the age of 30, and who take hormone therapy for long period. Risk rate is also higher in those who have high fat or meat diet, and smoking and drinking are reported as the risk factors. Frequency of occurrence is low in those who did breastfeeding.
02
Diagnostic Tests
| Type of Cancer | Examination Method | Advantages of Examinination | Disadvantages of Examination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breast cancer | Mammography | Recently released digital devices are favorable for checking overall shape and detecting lesion, and has low exposure dose. Test results are digitalized, so it is available to compare to other examinations. (It is favorable to women aged more that 40) | It has low possibilities in discerning disease in the cases of women under 30s. It may be difficult to get results from dense breast. |
| Mammary Gland Ultrasonography | It is favorable for precise diagnosis of localized lesion. It is highly effective on detecting benign tumors from young women in their childbearing years. | Results may be different depend on who perform. However, it is highly favorable for young women in their childbearing ages. |
03
Treatments
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Surgical resection Preferential treatment for breast cancer is surgical resection. Except when the size of breast mass is less than 2 cm, it recurs as remote metastasis into lungs, bones, liver, etc. in many patients. Therefore, breast cancer must be considered as general disease with undetectable micro remote metastasis from early stage. To prevent recurrence by remote metastasis after surgery, chemotherapy and hormone therapy are essential.
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Radiotherapy Radiotherapy is a topical therapy which is performed as an auxiliary therapy of surgery in order to prevent local recurrence. It is commonly performed after the least resection of breast mass in order to maintain the shape of breast.
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Adjuvant chemotherapy Adjuvant chemotherapy is a anticancer chemotherapy which is performed after surgery in order to prevent recurrence by remote metastasis. It is usually done for 6 months.
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Hormone therapy Hormone therapy is a method using antiestrogen medications in order to inhibit the growth of the cancer cells. Tamoxifen is mostly used and typically taken for five years. It is effective when breast cancer is estrogen receptor positive.
Self-exam and regular checkups to discover recurrence of breast cancer
Undergoing regular mammography is necessary in order to discover local recurrence early. And the patients must regularly inspect their breasts and axillary lymph nodes using self-breast examination.
In case of local recurrence, full recovery can be expected by reoperation or radiotherapy. Cancer development in the other breast. Compare to others, the patients whose breast cancer are detected early are more likely to develop cancer in the other breast.
04
Self-examination
As women's breasts are hormone-sensitive, any changes may be detected when the breasts become soft, that is 2~3 days after the period finished.
It is convenient for postmenopausal women to set the 1st day of each month as self-examination day. Inspect your breast in front of a mirror through following self-breast examination ways below.
| Facing mirror with arms at sides | Visually inspect breasts; size difference of two breasts, any wrinkles, dimpling, or secretion from nipple, |
|---|---|
| Clasping hands on the head | Visually inspect nipples' locations, dimpling |
| Putting both hands on the waist | Visually inspect any change on breasts spreading arms and shoulders toward the mirror. |
| Putting left hand behind the head | With flats of right fingers, check for any lump by pressing left breast down. Softly squeeze left nipple for any oozing or bloody secretion. Repeat for the other side. |
| Lying down | Place a pillow or folded towel under the left shoulder. It's easy to perform self-exam as the breast tissue spreads out evenly. Repeat for the other side. |