What are the signs of breast cancer?

Breast cancer can be said to be a malignant tumor disease with a very high incidence rate nowadays. Many female friends suffer from this disease and are unable to get the corresponding treatment effect. Their condition can only continue to worsen, eventually leading to the spread of the tumor. This will only make the condition more serious. Therefore, patients should still undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the early stages to control cancer cells.

Early breast cancer often does not have typical symptoms and signs and is not easily taken seriously. It is often discovered through physical examinations or breast cancer screening. The following are typical signs of breast cancer.

1. Breast lumps

80% of breast cancer patients first present with a breast lump. Patients often discover breast lumps accidentally, which are usually single, hard, with irregular edges and a less smooth surface. Most breast cancers are painless lumps, and only a few are accompanied by varying degrees of dull pain or tingling.

2. Nipple discharge

The discharge of blood, serous fluid, milk, or pus from the nipple during the non-pregnancy period, or the continued discharge of milk after breastfeeding has stopped for more than half a year, is called nipple discharge. There are many causes of nipple discharge, common diseases include intraductal papilloma, breast hyperplasia, mammary duct ectasia and breast cancer. Unilateral single-hole bloody discharge should be further examined, and should be taken more seriously if accompanied by a breast mass.

3. Skin changes

Breast cancer can cause skin changes and present a variety of signs. The most common is that the tumor invades the Cooper ligament connecting the breast skin and the deep pectoral muscle fascia, causing it to shorten and lose elasticity, pulling the skin in the corresponding area and causing the "dimple sign", that is, a small depression appears in the breast skin, like a dimple. If cancer cells block the lymphatic vessels, "orange peel changes" will occur, that is, many small dot-like depressions will appear on the breast skin, just like orange peel. In the late stage of breast cancer, cancer cells infiltrate into the skin along lymphatic vessels, glandular ducts or fibrous tissue and grow, forming scattered hard nodules in the skin around the main cancer focus, the so-called "skin satellite nodules."

4. Abnormalities of nipples and areolas

Tumors located deep in or close to the nipple may cause nipple retraction. When the tumor is far away from the nipple and the large ducts in the breast are invaded and shortened, the nipple may also retract or rise. Eczematoid carcinoma of the nipple, also known as Paget's disease of the breast, is characterized by itching, erosion, ulceration, crusting, desquamation, and burning pain of the nipple skin, resulting in nipple retraction.

5. Swollen axillary lymph nodes

More than one-third of breast cancer patients admitted to large hospitals have axillary lymph node metastasis. In the early stage, the ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes may be swollen, and the swollen lymph nodes are hard, scattered, and movable. As the disease progresses, the lymph nodes gradually fuse and become adhered and fixed to the skin and surrounding tissues. In the late stage, metastatic lymph nodes can be felt above the clavicle and in the contralateral axilla.