Breast Cancer Resources

Treatment and Diagnosis

The earlier breast cancer is found and diagnosed, the better your chances of beating it. Breast self-exam should be part of your monthly health care routine. If you're over 40 or at a high risk for the disease, you should also have an annual mammogram and physical exam by a doctor.

The actual process of diagnosis can take weeks and involve many different kinds of tests. Waiting for results can feel like a lifetime. The uncertainty stinks. But once you understand your own unique "big picture," you can make better decisions. You and your doctors can formulate a treatment plan tailored just for you.

Breast cancers are as varied as the women affected by them. By looking at the many different characteristics of the cancer, you can size up its "personality" almost the way you analyze another person. Is the tumor small and low-key? Angry, aggressive, and fast-moving? Or is it very large but easy-going? Is its behavior wild and unpredictable, or does it play by the rules?

Many tests and analyses will be done over several weeks to figure out your diagnosis. The most critical test results-for your treatment and your long-term health-will tell you and your doctor:

whether the cancer is non-invasive or invasive, and
whether lymph nodes are involved and if so, how many?

In addition, be sure that your medical team looks at these features of the cancer:

size
tumor grade
hormone receptor status
HER2/neu oncogene overexpression, and
margins of resection

You can get this information at any time, and you should always ask for it. The laboratory keeps your tissue samples for a long time after surgery, so these tests can be done later in the process of diagnosis if you insist on it. You may have to wait a few days or weeks for some of these results. The wait can be long and nerve-wracking. But remember: no matter what the doctors find, they can do something to help you.

The above information was obtained from BreastCancer.org.