Rather than saying symptoms of breast cancer we tell you to know symptoms of breast diseases. Because any kind of symptom may be due to a completely benign (non-cancerous) disease or may be due to an underlying malignancy.
It’s important that you recognize these and consult a breast specialist immediately. They will examine you, do few tests and let you know if these are due to an underlying cancer or non-cancer disease.
Following can be symptoms of an underlying breast problem-
1. Pain: Breast pain is very common and almost every woman experiences it at least once in her lifetime. Pain may be due to the hormonal changes in your breasts, benign fibroadenosis changes or rarely can be due to an underlying breast cancer. Cancers are associated with pain only in advanced stages. If you have breast pain that’s affecting your daily activities or its non-resolving or you have to take medicines for it or if it is associated with other symptoms also like lump or nipple discharge, then do consult your breast specialist.
2. Nipple discharge: If you notice that there is a fluid or blood that’s coming from your nipples, then you need to visit your doctor. The fluid may come out only when you press the nipples or you may just notice staining of your inner wears. If you think its milk coming out of the nipples and you are not lactating (breastfeeding) then again you should not ignore but visit your doctor. The discharge can be due to underlying infection, ducts ectasia or cancer, hence it needs further evaluation.
3. Painless lump: Lumps in the breast can be due to normal glandular tissue, non-cancerous or due to cancers. The normal breast tissue gets hypertrophied at places and you mat have a lumpy feel in your breasts. Both the benign problems and cancers can be felt as lumps. Cancer lumps are usually hard and nonmobile. If you think you are feeling a lump in your breast, get evaluated.
4. Sunken nipple: Also called retracted nipple, some women have inward nipple by birth that can be on both sides or only on one side. This is a normal variant and sometimes gets corrected at the time of breast feeding or may lead to inability to breastfeed the baby. If you think that your nipples were pointing out and there is a recent inward going then you should visit your doctor.
5. Nipple crust and itching: Sometimes you will see a change in the colour of nipple and areola becoming dry and with a crust getting deposited over it. This may be associated with itching and may even bleed on touching. This can be due to an underlying skin problem or Paget’s disease. Paget’s disease is a condition where the breast cancer cells grow along the milk ducts and come out to grow over the nipple skin.
6. Swollen breast: You may notice that a breast is swollen and has become bigger in size. This may be due to an underlying breast cancer, breast infections or other water retention problems. If its due to breast cancer, this is usually advanced stages.
7. New bulge/ bump in breast or armpit: You may notice a bulge beyond the confines of breast or in the armpits. These can be due to number of problems ranging from normal deposition of excess fat to cancers. So, any sort of bulge in the breasts or in the armpit should be evaluated.
8. Skin soreness: Sometimes there may be breakdown of the skin overlying breast leading to ulcer formation. This can be due to an underlying infection/ pus collection. Breast cancers can also lead to ulcer formation on the skin in late stages.
9. Enlarging/ prominent veins: Veins are straight tube-like structures that carry blood within them. These may become prominent or even felt if enlarged and carry more blood. This can happen when the demand by the breast problems (example during pregnancy or breast feeding or in presence of large tumors)
10. Hard thickened skin:
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