Friday, 12 August 2011

Early Breast Cancer Detection - Act Before It Is Too Late

By Sandy Rutherforde


Early breast cancer detection is incredibly important so women need to never take breast exams for granted. According to the American Cancer Society, early breast cancer detection can significantly improve the odds of survival for the person. If you are one of those people who have a record of breast cancer in the family, make sure you have frequent self examinations and clinical exams while you're still in your twenties and thirties.

Breast Self Examination (BSE)

BSE is one of the most common methods of monitoring major changes in the breast tissues. To monitor changes in your breasts, stand before the mirror and examine each breast for discolorations or dimpling 3 to 5 days following the final day of your period. Pay attention to any kind of suspicious looking dimples and discolorations which were not there when you previously screened yourself.

After doing an ocular examination of your breasts, you should conduct a physical examination. To get a lot more accurate results, you should conduct the self exam while you are lying down with your arm positioned at the back of your head. This particular position will allow the breast tissues to flatten out and spread uniformly over the chest bones. To help identify lumps, methodically run the finger pads of three middle fingers of your hand over your breast. Apply various levels of pressure while you move your fingers in slow circular motions from the top of the breast downward. Employ light pressure to find lumps near the skin surface and moderate to firm pressure to find lumps deep underneath the tissues.

If you sense any kind of lumps or mass in your breasts when conducting the self exam, don't panic. Even if you find lumps that doesn't mean you have cancer. Remember that not all lumps are cancerous so you need to not jump to any conclusions. To know if the lumps are cancerous or not, you'll want to pay a visit to your health care provider and ask for a clinical exam right away. Bear in mind that early breast cancer detection could save your life so see your doctor for some tests.

Clinical Breast Examination (CBE) and Mammogram

If you're in your 30s and 40s, you need to get frequent CBEs from health specialists. During the CBE, your doctor will take a look at your breasts for any indications of abnormalities through feeling the skin and tissues around this area. As you reach your forties, you will need to undergo routine screening mammograms. Should your doctor observes some abnormalities in the examinations, he or she may have you undergo additional tests to establish the nature of the problem. They could recommend biopsy of suspicious lumps in the breast.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment