Early Symptoms of Breast Cancer

Early symptoms of breast cancer need to be watched for and we describe them here to help you

Early detection of breast cancer is important. Women need to know the early symptoms of breast cancer so they can find it early enough to save their lives.

Sometimes there are no symptoms.

Instead, a mammogram is used to detect early breast cancer. In fact, the test that detects breast cancer the soonest is a breast cancer mammogram.

Breast self exam is important, too. Women need to learn how to examine their breasts for a breast lump or changes in the shape of the breast. A breast self exam is done on a monthly basis for women ages 25 or older. Ask your doctor how to best do a breast self exam.

Things to look out for in a breast self exam include:

• A breast lump
• A thickened area on the breast
• Swelling or redness of the breast
• Bloody nipple discharge
• Inward pulling of the nipple that wasn’t there before
• Dimpling of the skin in one area
• Pain in the breast
• A sore, itchy nipple that is new

It is important to know that finding these changes don’t mean you have breast cancer. It just means that you have to see the doctor for a doctor’s breast exam and that you need a breast cancer test, such as a breast cancer mammogram or MRI.

Breast Cancer Tests That Find Breast Cancer Early

There is more than one breast cancer test that can find breast cancer early. You do these tests if you have early symptoms of breast cancer or no symptoms at all. If you have no symptoms at all, it is called a breast cancer screening test. Two breast cancer screening tests are a breast MRI and a breast cancer mammogram.

A breast MRI is a test that uses electromagnetic energy to show areas of the breast that are abnormal.

• It is a good test for women with very dense breasts.
• It is a good test for women with early symptoms of breast cancer that are not obvious on exam.
• It is a much more expensive test than a breast cancer mammogram.

A breast cancer mammogram is inexpensive (less than $100 in some cases). It is a screening test for breast cancer. It uses x-rays and a special device to hold the breast in place before the x-ray is taken. The doctor reads the x-ray and looks for scar tissue and abnormal calcium deposits.

If you cannot afford a breast cancer mammogram, there are many programs that will help subsidize a breast cancer mammogram for you, especially if you have early symptoms of breast cancer. Talk to your doctor if you have a breast lump and need a breast cancer test to see if it is breast cancer. He may know of a program that gives free or low cost breast cancer mammograms.

Why it is Important to Find Breast Cancer Early

Early symptoms of breast cancer are important to pay attention to as they might save your life.

• Sixty percent of women are diagnosed while the breast cancer is localized and has not travelled to the other parts of the body.
• Thirty-three percent are found when the breast cancer has gotten to the lymph nodes.
• Five percent are diagnosed after the breast cancer has spread to other body areas.

If the breast cancer is found when the early symptoms of breast cancer are noted, the survival rate after five years is 98.3 percent.

If the breast lump is found when there is regional spread, 83.5 percent of women survive to five years.

The survival rate for a breast lump that has spread to other body areas (has metastasized), the survival is only 23.3 percent after five years.

The above data show why early symptoms of breast cancer should be paid attention to. A woman stands a far better chance of survival if the breast cancer is found early. Most of those early breast cancers are found with a breast cancer mammogram. The women didn’t even have any early symptoms of breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Mammogram Recommendations

Because a breast cancer mammogram can find a breast lump before there are early symptoms of breast cancer, you need to know the recommendations for breast cancer. The recommendations are confusing because they have recently changed. According to the US Preventative Services Task Force, mammograms are recommended every other year for women between 50 and 74. Women with a strong family history of breast cancer should have mammograms sooner and more often.

Many doctors disagree with these recommendations and are sticking to the old recommendations. Those included annual breast cancer mammogram tests for women aged 40 and older. Women with a strong family history should have annual exams as early as age 25.