October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This month is also an important time to educate yourself and others about breast cancer and what can be done to find it earlier, when successful treatment is more likely.
1. Facts About Breast Cancer
- Breast cancer is cancer that forms in the cells of the breasts
- Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women in the United States after skin cancer
- Breast cancer can occur in both men and women, but it’s far more common in women. ANY gender can be diagnosed with breast cancer as every gender has chest/breast tissue.
2. Signs and Symptoms
- A breast lump or thickening that feels different from the surrounding tissue in your breast or underarm and it doesn’t go away. This is often the first symptom of breast cancer. Your doctor can usually see a lump on a mammogram long before you can see or feel it.
- Change in the size, shape, appearance, contour, texture, or temperature of a breast
- Changes to the skin over the breast, such as dimpling
Change in your nipple: - Pulls inward
- Is dimpled
- Burns
- Itches
- Develops sores
- Unusual nipple discharge. It could be clear, bloody, or another color
- Peeling, scaling, crusting or flaking of the pigmented area of skin surrounding the nipple (areola) or breast skin
- Redness or pitting of the skin over your breast, like the skin of an orange
- Swelling in your armpit or near your collarbone. This could mean breast cancer has spread to lymph nodes in that area. Swelling may start before you feel a lump, so let your doctor know if you notice it
Since I am not an expert in this topic, please refer to Ericka Hart’s post about living with breast cancer and a few other facts about it here.
