My Breakthrough
Breast cancer diagnosis
If you or someone you care about has been diagnosed with breast cancer, this section will give you information on further tests that you may encounter - and aims to give you clear information on breast cancer types and characteristics.
Hearing a diagnosis
Nine out of ten breast lumps are not cancer. However, breast cancer is currently the most common cancer in the UK. It can often be treated more effectively if it is small when first found - a good reason to be breast aware and to go to visit a doctor as soon as a lump or other change in the breast is noticed.Hearing that you have breast cancer can be an enormous shock. You may feel numb and it can be difficult to take everything in. It may help to have someone with you both for emotional and practical support.
Having someone write down what you are being told can be a useful way of giving yourself the chance to take in the detail later, when you have recovered from the initial diagnosis. Be sure that you are clear about the information that you have been given and that you have someone in your breast care team that you can contact if you have any further questions.
Ask Questions
Well-informed women tend to suffer lower levels of anxiety - and this is crucial to being able to effectively engage in the decisions about the best treatment for
you.
Today many women don't need to have a mastectomy (removal of their breast). Research has shown that in many cases a lumpectomy (removal of the lump) followed by radiotherapy (treatment with high energy x-rays) is just as effective for certain types of breast cancer.
You may be offered a choice of operation. In all instances the surgeon should discuss the extent of surgery and the reasons for the recommended operation.
If the operation removes the entire breast, a reconstruction (creation of a new breast form) may be possible at the time of this operation or at a later date. Increasingly chemotherapy (drug treatment) and hormone therapy may be given before operations and/or radiotherapy. Both have generally been shown to have a positive effect on survival.
Breakthrough's Best Treatment Guidelines for women with breast cancer, cover every aspect of treatment and care, from diagnosis to surgery and radiotherapy to hormonal therapy.
Also within "Diagnosis"
(80 kb)
