Added: 02/16/2006 |
Breast Cancer Diagnosis - When, Where and HowAs soon as we get any kind of disease we go to a doctor to get the diagnosis and get to know what we are supposed to do and how we should treat ourselves while being sick. How is breast cancer diagnosis made by doctors? First of all, the doctor makes a careful physical exam. It is also very important to get to know about the patient's family medical history. The examination is done by feeling the lump and the tissue around it with the fingers. This way the doctor can tell about the size and the texture of the lump.
In case when it's hard to define the lump through the physical exam, mammography or ultrasonography is used. Mammography can give detail information on the lump with the help of X-rays. Ultrasonography shows whether the lump is fluid-filled or a solid mass. These are the main types with the help of which the breast cancer diagnosis is provided. The type of diagnosis depends on the breast cancer stages. Thus, those women who consult the doctor earlier have got much more chances to foresee the disease than those who come on the later stages when the problem itself is more serious and so is more difficult to diagnose only with help of careful physical exam.
The types of breast cancer vary depending on whether a woman has milk ducts or lobules. The breast cancer cell types are defined by making the biopsy. One of the types of breast cancer is the one when the cancer cells remain on the spot of their origin and do not spread around the other organs. One of the early-stage types of cancer is the ductal carcinoma which is abnormal cells that do not invade the breast tissue. A large number of women who have the ductal carcinoma and made the breast cancer diagnosis in time are successfully treated.
The other type and stage of breast cancer is the lobular carcinoma. This type is much more dangerous than the previous ones because the abnormal cells are contained inside the lobule of your breast, but still, they do not affect the surrounding breast tissue. The last and the most dangerous type of breast cancer is the group of so-called invasive breast cancers that may spread to the other parts of the body just as well as they may stay on the place of their origin. These are the most widely spread and well-known types of breast cancer diagnosis that affect a bigger part of the women who have the disease.
There are still much more less common types of the breast cancer. They are harder to treat and have other features, differing from those that were shown, they are the following: metaplastic carcinoma, sarcoma, phylloides tumor, inflammatory breast cancer, medullary carcinoma, and adenoid cystic carcinoma, Puget's disease of the breast, mucinous carcinoma, and tubular carcinoma.
Metaplastic carcinoma represents less than one per cent of newly diagnosed types of breast cancer. Its characteristic feature is that it remains localized and contains several different types of cells what makes it is very hard to treat and find it out. Sarcoma is the type of the cancer that appears and develops in the connective tissue of the breast. The phylloides tumor is a large, bulky tumor and it's characterized with that it develops in the connective tissue rather that in the duct or lobule.
The next type of the breast cancer is the inflammatory breast cancer. This disease is pretty rare but rather aggressive one. The skin becomes swollen and red; it looks like the orange peel. The characteristic feature of adenoid carcinoma is a large local tumor. Such rare type of the breast cancer as Puget's disease affects the nipple and the areola. Mucinous carcinoma produces the cells with mucus and they also grow into a jelly-like tumor. The tubular carcinoma is also an invasive type of the disease.
Thus, the breast cancer diagnosis is a necessary procedure that helps treat the cancer and also helps women to overcome the disease.
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