Early diagnosis is the most important determinant of survival, as in all other cancers. Screening programs developed for the purpose of detecting it at an early stage constitute the first step of diagnosis. The most important rule in diagnosis is self-examination by raising the awareness of individuals.
A mass developing outside of screening, nipple discharge, color change in the breast skin, breast skin and nipple In case of complaints such as depression, a physician should be consulted. In this case, the lesion causing this complaint is evaluated with mammography, ultrasonography and MRI. If a suspicious lesion or mass is detected as a result of this evaluation, it is determined by biopsy whether it is malignant or not. When a lesion with suspicious features is found on ultrasound or mammography, a biopsy should always be performed first.
The type of biopsy to be performed on a lesion in the breast is decided by whether the lesion is palpable or not and whether it is visualized by ultrasound or mammography. For example, while suspicious calcification areas detected only on mammography are performed with an open wire-guided technique called wire marking technique (sterotactic biopsy) accompanied by mammography, a thick needle biopsy called tru cut is performed on the lesion that is palpable and can be detected on ultrasound. Since large pieces of tissue are taken from biopsies performed in this way, the diagnosis is more precise, and in case of cancer, its characteristics can be given in more detail.
Apart from this, some lesions are biopsied with a normal injector, which we call fine needle biopsy. These lesions are usually inside the cyst, called cysts. These are fluid-filled lesions or armpit lymph nodes. Since tissue is not taken here, the purpose is only to determine whether the lesion contains cancer cells.
The most common biopsy method in the breast is tru cut (thick needle) biopsy. Nowadays, biopsies performed in the main masses of the breast to determine whether they contain cancer cells are not sufficient. By pathologically evaluating the characteristics of small tissue pieces taken from the tumor, it can be determined which cancer subtype it belongs to and whether there is a need for prior treatment or additional imaging.
Breast cancer with tissue diagnosis. After the diagnosis is made, a breast MRI may be performed to determine whether there is an additional tumor focus in the breast and to better understand the size of the mass. In addition, a whole body scan can be performed with the method called PET CT to determine whether there are metastases in the armpit and distant organs.
Read: 0
