Breast cancer is common. It usually occurs in women past the age of 40 years, though it has been seen to occur earlier as well. The incidence of breast cancer in the East is reported to be 20 per 100,000 women. It occurs a decade earlier than in the Western women; the mean age of occurrence is about 42 years in the East, as compared to 53 years in the West women.

Incidence of breast cancer is higher in the Western countries than it is in the East. Different studies have shown the incidence there per 1,00,000 women as follows:

USA                               71.4                 Denmark                      49.1
Switzerland                   70.6                 England                        48.0
Israel                            55.5                 Yugoslavia                    28.3

In Japan, the incidence is less than India, viz. 13.0/100,000 women.

Cause(s):

It is not known. The major known determinant of risk for breast cancer are delayed age at first pregnancy, family history of breast cancer, giving of oestrogens, fibrocystic breast disease, and exposure to the ionizing radiation.Symptoms:

A lump or nodule in the breast.
As this lump grows, it gets attached to the skin of the breast.

Lymph nodes become enlarged and papable in the axilla on the side of the disease.

Diagnosis:

Routine:

Physical examination of the patient and palpation of her breast to see whether the nodule is attached to the overlying skin, which it does in cases of cancer.

Blood:

Hb, RBC, TLC, DLC may be normal.

Special:

Taking out the lump of the breast surgically or if it is a big one, a part of it, and its histological examination, is necessary to establish a diagnosis. Biopsy can be taken under a local anesthetic or a general one.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy has also been useful not only in differentiating cancer from non-cancer lesions, but it can also pin-point the exact histologic type of the cancer. The overall accuracy was found to be 84.2 per cent in a study, reported from PGI Chandigarh, in 1979.