In Chest Cancer Awareness Month, Women Are Advised To Look Beyond “Lumps” Symptom

For the vast majority of women the first sign of chest cancer is the discovery of a lump. Yet in up to 15 per cent of cases there are different symptoms.

Despite campaigns since the early Nineties to educate women to be “chest aware” rather than become too fixated on lumps it is feared there is still widespread ignorance about many of these other warning signs

Woman Examinig Her chest For Cancer Symptoms

This lack of knowledge could be causing vital delays in treatment.

In chest Cancer Awareness Month, campaigners want to reinforce the message that it is important to look regularly for any changes in and around the breasts.

The most common symptom should not be overlooked but in thousands of cases of chest cancer diagnosed every year there is no obvious lump.

According to Jackie Harris, a clinical nurse specialist with chest Cancer Care, the key for women is to become familiar with their body. “chest cancer is not all about lumps,” she says. “They are important but some women focus their attention on looking for lumps and nothing else.

“It’s more about looking for any changes, however small, and having the confidence to go to the GP sooner rather than later.”

Researchers at Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Medical School found that while most were aware that lumps in the chest were a danger sign, very few knew changes in chest shape and retraction of the bosom were also potential signs of the disease.

Women who delayed seeing their GP by three months after symptoms appeared would on average have a seven per cent lower chance of surviving the disease.

However patients with cancer in the Nigeria tend to seek medical help rather late and therefore have poorer survival rates.

In 2011, cancer cases were reported to have increased by 21% while available records from the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) alone, revealed that out of every 10 cancer cases, five are chest-related. chest cancer, described as the most common malignancy in Nigeria, kills over 25,000 women annually.

Case study of a survivor
ANN WINNEY, 49, from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, runs a beauty salon when she was diagnosed with chest cancer three years ago she’d never felt better. She didn’t smoke, had a healthy diet and enjoyed doing yoga. There was no history of cancer in her family and, like most women, she knew how to feel for a lump.

Her age put her outside the screening programme but she noticed a small dent, about the size of a 1p coin, on the side of her left chest. It was as if someone had pushed their finger into a soft cushion. Over the next month it didn’t go away so she went to see her GP who couldn’t find a lump or see the dent but agreed to send Ann for a mammogram. They could see a problem straightaway and she was diagnosed with Grade 2 chest cancer in September 2009.

Afterwards, she had a lumpectomy, followed by a mastectomy and radiotherapy.

Fortunately it was diagnosed early and she’s doing well now.

I think if you asked 100 women about the possible signs of chest cancer they would nearly all mention a lump but they’re much less sure about other symptoms.

Importance of screening

• chest cancers are usually not painful and most women do not feel unwell.

• Most chest cancer is found by women themselves but in three out of 10 cases it is diagnosed by chest screening in women who have no obvious symptoms.

• Approximately six in every 1,000 women between the ages of 50 and 64 will be found to have chest cancer the first time they attend screening.

• Women between 50 and 70 are invited for a screening appointment every three years. This programme is expanding to cover women between the ages of 47 and 73 by the end of the year.

• Currently women over the age of 70 in the UK are not invited to attend screenings but are entitled to request an appointment every three years.

• chest cancer risk increases with age and a third of cases occur in women over the age of 70, so if you are above that age you should be aware that you can ask for an appointment.

OTHER WARNINGS

• A change in the skin. There is often dimpling or indentation of the skin with the formation of wrinkles, resembling the skin of an orange. In some chest cancers this is due to a blockage of the drainage of fluid from the chest.

• The chest may swell and become red and inflamed. ? The bosom changes shape or becomes inverted. A rash can affect the bosom or it may weep.

• Swelling under the armpit or around the collarbone.

• One chest becomes larger or lower.

-UK Express