The month of October is dedicated to the Breast Cancer Awareness
What organization drives World Breast Cancer Day?
Breast Cancer is a disease that affects a large number of women in the world. In this sense, the World Health Organization (WHO) is the organization that promotes worldwide this day and is the one that promotes the ** early detection of breast cancer **. According to the WHO, Breast Cancer is the most frequent among women at the planetary level.
The WHO has declared the month of October as the month of the Breast Cancer Awareness, creating a health campaign with the purpose of increasing the attention to the awareness-prevention and the support given to the early detection, the treatment and the palliative care for those who already suffer from the pathology. Breast cancer is the most frequent malignant tumor among the female population.
Although Breast Cancer affects mainly women, in recent years there have been increases in cases of men affected by this type of cancer, it occurs more frequently in men aged 60 to 70 years.
Why a pink ribbon in the fight against Breast Cancer?
This ribbon had already been used in other causes. The first time it was used was in the hostage crisis in Iran. In 1992 Alexandra Penney, Chief Editor of the magazine "Self", was writing about the fight against breast cancer and contacted the activist Charlotte Hayley to raise the idea of doing a joint work in tribute to the fight against breast cancer. Breast Cancer; However, this activist rejected his idea, so the magazine drew its own link: the pink ribbon we now know.
At that time the cosmetics brand Estée Lauder collaborated with the project, which distributed a total of 1,500,000 ties among its clients. Afterwards, Lauder created the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Breast Self-exploration
Self-examination should be done every woman every month after menstruation; In the case of not menstruation, it must be done on a fixed day of each month.
The self-exploration is done in front of a mirror to appreciate any change in the color and texture of the breasts. Once both breasts are observed, the examination is completed with a palpation.
What we should look for in our Self-exploration?
With palpation we should look for or appreciate in our breasts the following changes:
🕓 Lumps that are not large, perhaps the size of a pea or a hazelnut.
🕓 These protuberances do not have to be painful.
🕓 It can be a protuberance like a hard and dense mass, it can be immobile when palpating.
🕓 Asymmetric in some of the breasts, usually only appear in one of the breasts.
🕓 Retracting nipple: it is an inverted position to the normal.
🕓 Changes in the color of the areola, the areola is the dark skin that surrounds the nipple.
🕓 Alterations in the texture of the skin of the breast: orange peel, redness, cracks.
🕓 Increase in the number of veins visible in some of the breasts.
🕓 Asymmetries in the size of the breasts.
Diagnostic Methods
Among the Diagnostic Methods are non-invasive diagnostic tests and invasive diagnostic tests.
Non-invasive diagnostic methods
🕓 Mammography
🕓 Ultrasound
🕓 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of Mama
Invasive diagnostic methods
🕓 Puncture or biopsy guided by stereotaxis (FNAP method or BAG method)
🕓 Vacuum Assisted Biopsy or BAV System
Both Puncture and Biopsy are methods that allow to study a lesion with great precision. The Puncture is the obtaining of a sample of some cells (puncture with fine needle or FNAP), while the Biopsy is the obtaining of a sample of tissue (biopsy with a thick needle or BAG).
As for the BAV System, it is a biopsy that allows obtaining, with a single puncture, multiple cylinders a few millimeters thick, thus allowing an adequate histopathological study.
Some Statistics
According to WHO-Regional Office for the AmericasEach year in the Americas, more than 462.000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, of which almost 100.000 die from this disease.
If current trends continue, by the year 2030, it is estimated that the number of women diagnosed with Breast Cancer will increase by 34% in the Americas.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Breast Cancer is the most common cancer among women and is the second in mortality.
Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have some of the highest rates of risk of death from breast cancer, which highlights inequality in health in the Region.
Until a next publication dear fellow readers
Thanks for visiting my blog
This is a translation of my publication En el mes de la Sensibilización del Cáncer de Mama in Spanish
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://marlenyaragua.rockdio.org/2018/10/31/breast-cancer-awareness-month/