Breast Exams & Mammography

Breast Exams

Alaska Women’s Health, PC (AWH) is a strong advocate of monthly self breast exams and annual professional breast exams (performed by a medical provider). That is why our providers perform a breast exam at every annual women’s preventative exam. We also encourage our patients to call and schedule a breast check appointment if they have any of the following symptoms:

• A breast lump or thickening of the breast tissue
• Change in size or shape of the breast
• Discharge from the nipple
• Swelling, redness, and/or scaling of the breast and/or nipple
• Abnormal bruising or chronic bruising of the breast
• Breast pain
• Ridges or pitting of breast skin

All of these symptoms can be related to breast cancer or to benign (non-cancerous) breast disorders. Discharge from the nipples can be caused by a hormonal imbalance that causes milk production (lactation) in a non-breast feeding woman, it can also be caused by infection, or cancer. Breast lumps can be many different things, they can be benign tumors, cysts (over half of all women have fibrocystic breasts which can cause breast lumpiness and/or pain), or breast cancer. Redness and pain can indicate a cyst or an infection in breast tissue or a mammary gland. Redness can also indicate a type of breast cancer called inflammatory breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer can also cause chronic bruising in the area of the breast where the cancer is centered.

 
To perform a breast self-exam, use a circular, massaging motion and follow a clock pattern or a wedge pattern. You can also use a sweeping motion to examine breast tissue (sweeping your fingers from the outer part of your breast in toward your nipple).

Mammography

AWH’s providers encourage mammography in women age 40 and over or earlier for women at higher risk for breast cancer development. In general, medical professionals suggest that a woman with a family medical history of breast cancer get her first mammogram based on the age of her relative who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the youngest age. It is suggested that a women with this risk get her first mammogram at an age of ten years less than the youngest breast cancer case in her family. For example, if a patient’s mother was 49 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer then the patient should get her first mammogram at age 39. This suggestion can vary if a patient has a known breast cancer causing gene mutation (BRCA mutation).

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recommendations on screening mammograms:

• Women age 40 and older should have a screening mammogram every 1 to 2 years.
• Women at higher risk for breast cancer should discuss with their health care provider whether or not to have a screening mammogram at a younger age than 40.

BRCA Testing

BRCA Testing is genetic testing via a blood test and is used to determine if a person carries a mutated BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 gene. The BRCA genes normally play an enormous role in preventing breast and ovarian cancer. That’s why mutations in one or both of these genes is strongly linked to inherited breast and ovarian cancer. Having a mutation in one or both of these genes makes a women more susceptible to developing breast and/or ovarian cancer.

• A woman with a BRCA mutation has a 33-50% risk of developing breast cancer by age 50 and a 56-87% risk by age 70. (The lifetime risk of developing breast cancer for a woman without a BRCA mutation and/or family history of breast cancer is 12%.)
• A woman with a BRCA mutation has a 27-44% lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer. (The lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer for a woman without a BRCA mutation is 1.42%.)
• A woman with a BRCA mutation-caused breast cancer is at a greatly increased risk of developing a second breast cancer or ovarian cancer.
• Certain BRCA mutations are more common among people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent (Central or Eastern Europe).
• Fifty percent of all women with hereditary risk of breast and ovarian cancer inherited their mutated gene from their father not their mother.
• BRCA mutations also increase a man’s risk of developing breast cancer.

 Statistically:

• A woman with a BRCA mutation has a 33-50% risk of developing breast cancer by age 50 and a 56-87% risk by age 70. (The lifetime risk of developing breast cancer for a woman without a BRCA mutation and/or family history of breast cancer is 12%.)
• A woman with a BRCA mutation has a 27-44% lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer. (The lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer for a woman without a BRCA mutation is 1.42%.)
• A woman with a BRCA mutation-caused breast cancer is at a greatly increased risk of developing a second breast cancer or ovarian cancer.
• Certain BRCA mutations are more common among people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent (Central or Eastern Europe).
• Fifty percent of all women with hereditary risk of breast and ovarian cancer inherited their mutated gene from their father not their mother.
• BRCA mutations also increase a man’s risk of developing breast cancer.
  
  
  

Websites of Interest

Breast Self-Exams

Komen.org: Breast self-exam
MayoClinic.com: Breast self-exam

Mammography

BreastCancer.org: Mammograms
MedicineNet.com: Mammogram
RadiologyInfo.org: Mammography