EARLY breast cancer diagnosis is essential to increasing cure rates, in order to reduce mortality, Chairman and Founder of Apollo Hospitals, India, Dr Prathap C. Reddy, has stated.
He said further that screening for breast cancer includes breast self-examination, yearly clinical breast examination for women of 40 years and above, and yearly mammogram for women of 40 years and above.
Dr Reddy said the strongest risk factors for breast cancer being a malignancy, that is abnormal cells, arising in the mammary glands affect both men and women, though they are 100 times more common in women.
Dr Reddy also noted that the risk of breast cancer increases with age, while breast incidence rates are highest in women of over 70 years of age.
He added that other risk factors are family history and genetics (BRCAs1 and BRCA2); late childbirth above 35 years, obesity; early menses below 12 years; late menopause above 55 years and post menopausal hormonal therapy.
According to statistical data issued by Apollo Hospitals, over 230,000 women in the United States of American are diagnosed with breast cancer each year while about 40,000 women die from the disease every year. The data confirmed that male breast cancer, however, accounts for about one per cent of all breast cancers
The sign and symptoms of breast cancer, according to Dr Reddy, are breast lump, which he said is mostly common in 95 per cent cases; nipple discharge in 10 per cent cases; breast pain being late symptoms indicating advanced stage, and the advanced stage which manifests in weight loss; bone pain; armpit swelling and breast skin ulceration.
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