[National Cancer Prevention and Treatment Week] Breast nodules and breast hyperplasia

Why do women develop breast nodules?

In short, breast nodules are just a phenomenon, not a disease itself. Breast nodules include hyperplastic nodules, tumor nodules, cancer nodules, inflammatory nodules, etc., which can be seen in various diseases, and about 80% are benign diseases. The causes include genetic factors, environmental factors, and bad living habits.

How to self-check breast nodules?

First of all, women of childbearing age can do self-examination 9-11 days after menstruation, while women in menopause are advised to choose a fixed day every month for examination. You can do self-examination while bathing. The correct way to do breast self-examination is: stretch out your palm, use the two knuckles at the end of the index finger, middle finger, and ring finger, and hold the palm of three fingers for self-examination. Use small circular spirals or move up and down, alternating hands. When you touch a lump, you can use your fingers to feel the mobility, size, and boundaries of the lump. Under bright light, face the mirror to observe whether the skin of the breast, nipple, and areola is peeling or eroded, and whether the nipple is raised or retracted. Avoid pinching the breast with your hands. This wrong way of self-examination can easily touch a lump by mistake, and end up scaring yourself.

Is the lump I feel a nodule?

First of all, in connection with the answer to the previous question, the wrong self-examination method can easily lead to the feeling of a false nodule, and the lump felt at this time is of course not a real nodule. If the self-examination method of most female friends is correct, the lump felt at this time is called a breast nodule, but in fact it may be a completely different disease, such as hyperplastic nodules, breast cysts, inflammatory nodules, etc. For the final diagnosis, it is recommended to go to the hospital and ask an experienced doctor to palpate, combined with ultrasound and mammography to confirm.

Treatment and prevention of breast nodules

As mentioned above, breast nodules involve a variety of diseases, most of which are benign. For general breast nodules, there is no good way to prevent them except for regular work and rest, healthy diet, and maintaining a good attitude. Regular physical examinations are very important. For ordinary women, it is best to have a breast examination every year; for female friends with a clear family history of breast cancer, who have suffered from breast cancer or atypical breast hyperplasia, it is recommended to have more frequent breast examinations. For some women who have confirmed breast cancer-related gene mutations through genetic testing, preventive bilateral breast removal is also one of the means to reduce the incidence of breast cancer.

Why is breast hyperplasia so common?

Breast hyperplasia is not even a disease, but a normal physiological phenomenon. Almost every woman who goes to the hospital for a checkup will have the report of "breast hyperplasia". Many girls will think of breast cancer when they see these four words...Don't panic, there is no necessary connection between the two.

Breast tissue is an organ affected by hormones, and breast development is also the result of hormones. During a woman's menstrual period, hormone fluctuations constantly stimulate breast tissue: before menstruation, hormone levels are higher, breast tissue thickens, cells enlarge, and the proliferating tissue will also cause pain after being stimulated by hormones; after the menstrual period, hormone stimulation subsides, breast tissue hyperplasia is relieved, and the pain is also reduced.

It goes on and on, just like the ebb and flow of the seawater. It is a normal phenomenon. Only a very small number of pathological hyperplasias will turn into cancer. Therefore, for most breast hyperplasias, you don’t have to worry too much. Regular physical examinations every year can be enough.

What are the causes of breast hyperplasia?

The root cause of breast hyperplasia is the fluctuation of hormone levels in the body, which is caused by the interaction between hormones and breast tissue.

What are the symptoms of breast hyperplasia?

Breast hyperplasia generally causes breast pain, periodic breast enlargement, and lumps with unclear boundaries when touched locally.

What is the difference between breast hyperplasia and nodules?

Breast hyperplasia is actually the "abnormality of the normal development and degeneration process of the breast" rather than a real disease. There is a river between "normal" and "disease" - "abnormality". It turns out that what we call "breast hyperplasia" is just abnormality. Breast nodules more often refer to a phenomenon in which lumps appear in the breast during the development of various breast diseases. Its cause may be excessive proliferation of some breast tissues or breast tumors.

What should I do if I have breast hyperplasia?

Since we have said that breast hyperplasia is not a disease, does it still need to be treated? That depends on the purpose. If you want to cure breast hyperplasia once and for all, this goal cannot be achieved and there is no need to achieve it. If you want to relieve the symptoms of pain and swelling, there are still certain methods.

Western medicine treatment can use estrogen receptor modulators such as tamoxifen to block the effects of estrogen, relieve pain, and have a strong therapeutic effect. However, due to certain side effects, it is not the first choice and should not be taken for a long time.

Treatment with traditional Chinese medicine: Chinese patent medicine against breast hyperplasia can relieve the swelling and pain caused by the hyperplasia. The effect is relatively mild and the side effects are relatively small. It can help some female friends with more severe symptoms to get through the "most difficult period".

Surgical treatment: Breast hyperplasia is caused by endocrine and metabolic imbalance, so there is no need for surgery. However, when encountering individual hyperplastic breast nodules that are similar to breast cancer, surgical resection can be used to make a clear diagnosis.

All these methods can only temporarily relieve the symptoms of hyperplasia, and will not bring about the effect of "eradicating the root cause". In short, breast hyperplasia, as an "abnormal" physiological phenomenon, will not disappear and does not need to be "cured".

Source: Zhejiang Anti-Cancer Association