Breast Density May Determine Cancer Risk
Breast Density May Determine Cancer Risk During October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an article in an online guide to women’s health released the some of the newest research findings. An issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute had contained a report information relating to the assessment of a woman’s risk for getting breast cancer.
That widely-read publication had published findings that pointed to breast density as a risk factor that should cancer play a part in the determination of a woman’s risk for breast cancer. By the same token, the techniques that could facilitate a determination of a woman’s risk for breast cancer remained an elusive ideal. The existing equipment used to examine women’s breasts was not designed to measure breast density.
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Breast Cancer and Men
Breast cancer is thought to be synonymous with women. However, an estimated 1,600 American men are diagnosed each year. Two-thirds will survive due to seeking medical attention for questionable or new abnormalities.
Men do not have milk glands but do have ducts. Breast cancer in males generally develop in the ducts, lymph nodes, or behind the nipple. It most often appears as a hard and sometimes painful knot. Men with prominent pectoral muscles or very little fat on their chests recognize lumps almost immediately since they are more easily seen and felt. Other symptoms include nipple discharge, skin redness or puckering, or an inverted nipple.
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The Pap Smear for Breasts
A new diagnostic procedure has been called a “pap smear for breasts.” It does for breast cancer what the Pap test has done for cervical cancer. It provides a means for the early detection of breast cancer.
The test procedure calls for placement of a tiny tube in the patient’s nipple. A saline solution is sent through the tiny tube and into the breast duct. That saline solution allows the physician to wash out from the duct any loose cells. The physician then extracts the wash fluid from the patient’s breast ducts.
Analysis of the extracted fluid can be accomplished in one of two ways. Either the physician analyzes the fluid under a microscope or the physician sends the sample to a lab, where it is analyzed by means of cell cytometry. During either type of analysis, the examiner must look for a sign of cancer cells.
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