Signs of breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, with more than 48,000 women and around 350 men getting a diagnosis every year. 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes. As with all cancers, regular checks can help detect early signs of growth, which could lead to potentially life-saving early diagnoses. Here's our quick reminder of how to check your breasts and what to look for.

One of the main reasons women don't regularly check their breasts is that we're not sure what constitutes an abnormality - but we need to know the signs and symptoms because the earlier breast cancer is found, the better the chance of beating it.

So what should you do? 

As well as knowing the signs and symptoms, women must remember to check their breasts regularly.
It's as simple as TLC:

• TOUCH your breasts. Can you feel anything unusual?
• LOOK for changes. Is there any change in shape or texture?
• CHECK anything unusual with your doctor.

What are you looking for? 

• A change in the size, shape or feel of a breast
• A lump or thickening in the breast or armpit
• A change to skin texture, such as a rash, crusting or dimpling
• A change in position and/or appearance of nipple
• Nipple discharge
• Breast pain

Causes

Uncontrollable factors

There are some variables associated with developing breast cancer that are unfortunately out of anyone's control. These are:

• Age and gender: simply being a woman and growing older are the two biggest risk factors leading to breast cancer diagnoses, with older women being the most at risk. The condition is most common amongst women aged over 50, with 8 out of 10 cases being in this demographic.
• Genetics: whilst breast cancer is very unlikely to pass through family members, those with the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, and TP53 and CHEK 2 may be at a slightly higher risk.
• Previous lumps: those who have previously had breast cancer or early non-invasive cancer cells in their breast are more likely to face a reoccurance of the disease. Benign lumps also increase the risk.
• Dense breast tissue: having denser breast tissue increases the risk as there are more cells in the breast that can turn cancerous. However, the risk with this variable is higher with younger women.
• Estrogen levels: the duration to which your body has been exposed to estrogen throughout your life, starting from puberty and ending with menopause, could help to determine the degree to which you're at risk to developing breast cancer, with higher estrogen levels increasing the risk slightly.

Other factors

• Physical activity: breast cancer risk is 13-25% lower in studies where women were the most active, compared to the least.
• Alcohol: higher alcohol consumption (and especially more than the weekly recommended maximum of 14 units per week), can increase your risk of breast cancer.
• Weight: greater body weight can increase the risk (fatty tissue produces more estrogen), and this rises even further in post-menopausal women who are overweight/obese, by 12-13%, and 16-20% respectively.
• HRT: contains synthetic sex hormones, with the risk being higher with estrogen-progestogen HRT (combined HRT), than with estrogen-only HRT.
• The pill: those who take the contraceptive pill increase their risk slightly, but this decreases back to normal levels 10 years after its cessation.

Breast cancer accounts for nearly one in three of all female cancers and one in eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime. Around 1,000 women die of breast cancer every month in the UK. The good news is that more women than ever in the UK are surviving breast cancer thanks to better awareness, better treatments and better screening.

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Images: Shutterstock