Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Breast Cancer Treatment: Mammograms, Ultrasound or Breast Self Exam?

While some of the factors are unavoidable, am not saying that it's not treatable, the goal of the discussion is to diagnose and detect breast cancer as early as possible, and to give you the best achievable option against the disease. If breast tumors caused signs early in their growth, they would be easier to be detect and treated successfully. But tumors can grow and spread for years without causing any unusual symptoms. Mammograms, clinical breast exams (CBE) which are done by a doctor or a nurse and breast self exams (BSE) are the three ways to detect tumors.

Experts recommend the following guidelines for finding breast cancer early:
Women who are 50 and above should undergo mammograms every year and should continue to do so for as long as they are in good health.
Women who are 40 and above should have a mammogram every two years.
Women in their 20s and 30s should have a clinical breast exam by a health professional at least every three years.
Every woman who is in teens or post-menstruating should know how their breasts normally look and feel and report any breast change promptly to their health care provider. Breast Self Exam (BSE) is an option for women starting in their 20s.
Women with greater risks of breast cancer including women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer and women who were treated for Hodgkin disease should undergo ultrasound and MRI.

Together, these methods offer the best chance of finding breast cancer early. Typically, the earlier a cancer is detected and diagnosed, the most successful the treatment, thus enhancing the survival rate. A mammogram can often identify breast lumps that may be cancerous before physical symptoms develop; nevertheless, some cancers that are not detectable on a mammogram may still be felt by yourself or your nurse. You may not even want to know if a tumor is growing inside you, however, by doing your breast self exam regularly, you get to know how your breasts normally look and feel and you can more readily detect any signs or symptoms if a change occurs.

In the early stages of some types of abnormalities, the cancerous cells make a cluster and there is an increase in blood flow to the area. This increase in the number of small vessels may create a dark shadow or dark area when you go through your monthly screening. It's not only mammograms or ultrasound or breast clinical screening but all these techniques should make up your strategy against breast cancer.

Breastlight is the world first and only handy device that allows you to look inside your breasts. It helps you not only in detecting malignant breast tumors but also in making you confident and breast aware. For more information about breast awareness and breastlight visit our website http://www.breastlight.com/

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