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Your Questions about Breast Cancer Screening, Diagnosis, and Local Follow-up
Breast Monitoring
Which part does a woman play in her breast monitoring ?
Since the breast is a bit like a "grape cluster", sometimes we can palpate lumps in it. Cancer appears differently : it is more firm, fixed, it does not move and is painless most of the time.
We can advice patients to inspect their breasts in front of a mirror once a month.
Look at the nipples (are they inverted ? is it recent ?) and the skin (has it changed ? does the underarm skin swell when arms are dangling or are up?).
However, the most important part that a woman must play for a successful screening is certainly collaborate. This success depends on the screening regularity, with a comparison of the different images in order to detect the slightest change early. Therefore, it is imperative to bring the previous radiological reports to each examination, especially if these reports were drawn up outside Jules Bordet Institute.
At which age does monitoring must start and at which rate ?
When it is not the case of familial cancer, it is advised to start screening from the age of 40.
The ideal monitoring rate is once a year, at least in women between the ages of 40 and 50 because cancer development rate is usually faster among them.
From the age of 50, a rate of 2 years may be proposed.
If there are breast cancers in the family, it is proposed to start monitoring 5 to 10 years before the age when cancer developed in one of the family member. For instance : if the mother developed breast cancer at 42 years old, her daughter will be advised to start screening from the age of 32 or 37, and once a year.
When may I stop monitoring ?
The number of breast cancer increases as people get older until the age of 75.
The ratio of people diagnosed between the ages of 75 and 84 years old is 13%, and 5% for people diagnosed after the age of 84.
We can thus have cancer after the age of 75 but it usually develops more slowly and, relating to survival, it is probably not subjected to earlier screening than the clinical discovery. However, whatever the age may be, an early diagnosis enables patients to get a treatment less heavy and thus, less traumatic for every woman.
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