- Available 24/7
- Goce Delchev 85/a – Shtip
- contact@organdziski.com
Breast diseases can be benign or malign.
Mastopathy is a benign ailment of the breasts which leads to progressive and regressive changes to the chest, such as atrophy, hyperplasia and metaplasia of the mammary glands. It can occur at any point of the woman’s reproductive life and, based on the histopathological findings, we distinguish 3 levels of mastopathy: light mastopathy (I degree), moderate mastopathy (II degree) and severe mastopathy (III degree). In 70% of the cases, we come across light mastopathy. It usually manifests as fibroid and fibro-cystic changes to the breast, but the risk for it turning cancerous is only 0,5%.
Moderate level mastopathy occurs in 20% of the cases and the risks for it turning malignant is twice as high. In around 10% of the female population, we might find cases of severe mastopathy, it’s the least common but it is crucial that it is diagnosed timely and that it is differentiated from the extremely invasive breast cancer. The risk for severe mastopathy to turn into cancer is 2-4 times higher than in other cases.
The most common symptoms are breast pain (mastodynia), the presence of nodules (most commonly in the upper outside corner of the breast) or, occasionally, fluid is secreted from the nipples (watery, milky-white or bloody). We would diagnose this after a thorough examination, palpating, ultrasound mammography (breast echo check-up), cytological examination via punction or a histological examination via a biopsy. Ultrasound mammography is the only noninvasive method for cancer screening that could be performed on women aged 20-70 years old.
Breast cancer is a malignant disease. The risk for breast cancer if far greater in female patients and it could be hereditary (if the patient’s mother or a member of the family on the mother’s side has had cancer). The risk is higher for female patients who have has their first baby after the age of 30, as well as with patients who have has infertility issues, obese patients, patients who got their first period before they were 11 years old and those who entered menopause after the age of 55.
In 50-60% of the cases, the cancer cells are in the upper lateral part of the breast, in about 15-20% around the nipple and only in 6% of the cases cancer cells are present in both breasts, usually it’s in one of the breasts. Breast cancer grows very slowly, it could be 6-8 years until it has grown to 1 cm and it becomes noticeable. Its symptoms are sparse as well- there could be occasional pain, but the patient most frequently go to the doctor after they have noticed a lump or a nodule. Further along we could notice a drawback of the nipple, orange peel skin or fluid discharge from the nipple.
Diagnostically, the self-examinations done between day 5 and 10 of the cycle is the most crucial. It is done by palpating the breast tissue with a sightly raised arm. It is recommended to be done once a month after the age of 20. The ultrasound is the safest and most certain screening you could do. If the findings are uncertain, punction could be done for a cytological examination and a biopsy for a histological examination. If the disease if detected in the first stage of cancer, the survival rate is 70-80%, in the second stage of cancer, it is 50-70 % and in the final stadium less than 20-30%. We would say that a woman is cancer free is she has been in remission for more than 5 years after the first diagnosis.
Regular self-examinations and regular ultrasound check-ups significantly reduce the breast cancer death rate.