Breast Cancer

According to WHO statistics, 22.9% of the total number of women's oncological diseases are breast cancers. The female sex suffers from this ailment 100 times more often than the male, but in men the diagnosis is already mainly in the late stages. Each year, about one million diagnoses of breast cancer are detected, half of which lead to an unfavorable outcome. The percentage of cures is much higher in Western countries, but the number of cases of breast cancer is much higher in the same countries.

Scientists refer to a number of factors that increase the risk of cancer, and some of them are not in doubt, while others are still unproven and controversial among scientists.

Age is the main factor. If a woman is over 45 years old, she has 10 times more chances to get sick than the younger, and the risk only increases with the years. In our country, every woman of age 40 plus is required to consult a mammologist once a year.

Previous cancer also worsens the prognosis. Relapses occur quite often, and over the years their percentage increases.

Heredity is also an unfavorable factor. If in the family history there were cases of detection of malignant breast tumors, then the woman's risk of this disease increases.

At the menopause, which usually begins after age 50, the ovaries produce less amounts of hormones, and women are actively beginning to use hormone replacement therapy, which becomes the cause of the tumors.

Among other reasons is the lack of pregnancy and breastfeeding, obesity, abortion, smoking, radiation.

In 80% of cases of diagnosing breast tumors, the woman herself finds out these neoplasms. Symptoms of cancer include:

visible changes in shape or abrupt enlargement of the breast;

changing the shape of the nipple; purulent discharge;

pain and discomfort in the mammary gland or in the axillary region;

the skin becomes wrinkled and compacts over the site of tumor formation.

But the main symptom is the seals in the mammary glands, which the patient can detect at herself during monthly self-examination. It must be carried out 10-12 days from the beginning of the cycle. Before the mirror, the shape of the breast and the position of the nipples are evaluated, then the fingers need to feel both mammary glands down the spiral from top to bottom, paying attention to possible seals, checking for bloody or purulent discharge from the nipples, and carefully examining the skin.