Breast Cancer: Diagnosis
Early diagnosis is especially important in the case of breast cancer before it’s to spin off the disease responds best to treatment.
The doctor will perform a complete physical examination, and conduct a detailed investigation of personal or family history of the patient.
1. Clinical examination
The doctor observed whether the skin covering the breasts will change in some areas, asking the patient to put his arm in different positions.
A careful palpation of the breast can say many things about the medical nature of a lump. Its size, its consistency, so it rolls under your finger, etc..
2. Mammography
A radiograph can provide the physician with important information about a lump or swelling in the breast.
This examination can reveal tumors too small to be detected by palpation (microcalcifications, for example).
In addition to the mammogram, the doctor has other methods to aid in diagnosis.
3. MRI
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is a means of investigation in the diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring of cancer.
Providing a visualization of anatomical sections extremely thin, it allows to differentiate diseased tissue and healthy tissue to perform a “mapping” very accurate three-dimensional tumors.
4. Ultrasound
It can produce images from the echo of high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) sent in the breast.
Ultrasound is often more effective in young women who have dense breasts.
5. Samples
- The aspiration cytology or biopsy: vacuuming using a needle and syringe some fluid or tissue size, we will know if it is a cyst (and not a cancer) or a solid mass (which can be cancerous or not).
- Biopsy to confirm the diagnosis. This technique involves removing part or all of a lump or a suspicious area, and to examine anatomical and pathological microscope. It is usually performed under local anesthesia.
6. Analysis
If breast cancer is found, the pathologist may specify the type. Other laboratory tests, more specialized, are sometimes performed on cancerous tissue, to better understand the cells that form them.
If the biopsy shows cancer, it is necessary to conduct tests on the tumor (dose estrogen receptor and progesterone). These reviews are intended to determine whether hormones feed the tumor and facilitate its growth (hormone-dependent tumors). This information gives the physician the opportunity to decide the value of hormone therapy, either immediately or subsequently.
7. Staging
It also has a number of tests to determine whether the disease has spread to other parts of the body. They are the “staging”.
Will be performed blood tests, chest radiograph, bone scan and laboratory tests, including tumor markers (CA15-3).
Breast cancer can swarm into the lungs, liver, bones or brain, the doctor may order tests specific for these organs. All of these tests allows the physician to assess the extent or stage of disease. It evaluates the size of the tumor, the existence of a clinically node-negative, then the presence of distant metastases of the breast. This is the “TNM” which allows the physician to develop a therapeutic strategy.
8. The Treatment Planning
The treatment strategy developed by the physician depends on the TNM
T: tumor size. Of T0 (primary tumor) to T4 (tumor extending to the chest wall or skin)
N: lymph node
M: the presence or absence of metastases
Finally, the record allows for a classification of cancer: Stage I to Stage IV. Are also taken into account in developing a treatment, patient age, hormonal status (menopause or not), his general condition and certain tumor characteristics (expression of hormone receptors, for example).