Mexico City /
A positive diagnosis of breast cancer It should not be synonymous with death, health specialists say in light of the current advance in treatments and early detection methods.
Even so, this type of cancer is not only one of the most common in the world: it is also one of those that takes the most lives. The latest update of the World Health Organization (WHO) points out that this disease caused 670 thousand deaths worldwide during 2022.
In the case of Mexico it was detected that 8 thousand 034 people (mostly women) they lost their lives for this type of tumors during 2023, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
Hence the importance of knowing when or at what time it is appropriate to perform a test for its detection as well as what the considerations and risk factors are.
How often and who should be tested
Women and people who were assigned female at birth are the population most affected by this disease.
In this sense, various investigations have found that having an exam screening every two years can reduce the risk of dying from this disease. Since the danger is greater at older ages, tests are recommended for the population between 40 and 74 years of age.
“This will allow that when something is found, it will be small enough to have a timely treatment, not a mutilating one,” he explains to MILLENNIUM the clinical specialist in breast imaging, Ruby Espejo Fonseca.
In addition to age, periodic testing is recommended to those who have a historyyes, either in your own medical history or that of a family member, since sometimes genes are inherited that increase the risk of suffering from this type of cancer.
Other factors are dense breast tissue and one constant exposure to estrogen. According to a report from US National Cancer Institutethere are circumstances in a woman’s reproductive history that increase the time the breasts are exposed to estrogen, which in turn adds to the risk of breast cancer, such as:
- early menstruation : Starting to have menstrual periods before age 12 increases the number of years that breast tissue is exposed to estrogen.
- Onset of menopause at an older age : The more years a woman menstruates, the longer her breast tissue is exposed to estrogen.
- Advanced age at the time of the birth of the first child or having never given birth: Pregnancy reduces a woman’s number of menstrual cycles throughout her life. Breast tissue is exposed to more estrogen for longer periods in women who become pregnant for the first time after age 35 or who never become pregnant.
The symptoms and what can be done before 40
Although the risk is greater at older ages, the specialist points out that before the age of 40, women can begin preventive measures such as routine visits to the doctor and self-exploration mammary.
Doctors recommend starting with self-exploration since the age of 20, as the first effective measure to detect cancer in a timely manner.
Another important point is self-knowledge and symptom detection. One of the most common is the appearance of a lump or mass in the breasts. Other possible signs of the condition are:
- Swelling (either total or partial) of a breast
- Dimples in the skin of the chest
- Breast or nipple pain along with red, dry, scaly, or thickened skin
- Chest retraction
- Secretion
- Swollen lymph nodes under the arm or near the collarbone
The presence of these symptoms is not conclusive, as they can also be caused by non-cancerous breast conditions, however, it is important to detect any abnormalities in the area.
An important point to take into account is that, although rare, Malignant breast tumors also occur in men: In 2022, at least 50 of them died in Mexico due to this type of cancer. The clinical picture is exactly the same as that experienced by a woman.
What to do to prevent breast cancer?
Promoting prevention measures can help reduce the chances of suffering from this type of cancer.
“Among the factors that we can avoid to avoid the disease are alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption, obesity, overweight and a sedentary lifestyle”
“You should avoid reaching menopause overweight or obese since the free fat we have in the body is transformed into estrogen and these are a predisposing factor to cancer,” explains Espejo Fonseca.
Other factors to take into account are the hormonal therapies for symptoms of menopause and radiotherapy in the breast or thorax.
LHM
