Knowing Your Breasts

Knowing Your Breasts
by Chris K. H. Teo & Ch'ng Beng Im

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Minimising Breast Cancer Risk!

Understand risk factors, preventive measures and early detection.

There is a Chinese saying: The road to health is the road of knowledge ?Ignoring knowledge is sickness.  Ladies, is it not time now that you EMPOWER YOURSELF AND STAY HEALTHY?

Breast cancer affects women more than any other form of cancers. One out of 15 Malaysian women suffer from breast cancer.  In the USA a new breast cancer case is being diagnosed every three minutes, and one woman will die from it every 12 minutes.

What causes breast cancer? No one knows! But cancer can be prevented and your actions play a vital role in making lower cancer risk a reality for yourself. Your life is in your hand.

Modern medicine does not deal with cancer prevention. It concerns itself only when and after the symptom has manifested itself. Unfortunately this means too late for some people! Our ancient forefathers stressed the importance of prevention and cultivation of good health through the adoption of a healthy lifestyle and good nutritional practices.

So, if you wish to minimise the risk of getting breast cancer, it is worthwhile learning and knowing what our forefathers have to tell us!

Foreword

By the wife of Honourable Prime Minister Malaysia

The collective commitment to fight breast cancer unites people from all walks of life. I see Dr. Chris K. H Teo and his wife, Beng Im as two people who subscribe to the belief that prevention is better than cure. Through this book, Knowing Your Breasts, they hope to empower women to understand breast cancer before it starts.

Good health should not be taken for granted. We have to conscientiously work at maintaining and sustaining good health. In this dynamic and progressive era, we can easily gain access to approaches, methods and techniques for ensuring personal well being. Chris and Beng Im have offered women an excellent resource book on matters pertaining to breast cancer. Every woman should try to read this book.

I think this book is timely as statistics show that there is a tendency for more women to be victims of breast cancer. I believe this book would be able to provide answers for the myriads of questions women ask. The contents of the book are suitable for individual reading, as well as for group discussion to share deeper insights into prevention of breast cancer.

Finally, I wish Cancer Care every success in its mission to give support and care to those who need them in their fight against cancer. I end with this quotation :

We must remember that all of life is a learning experience.

We grow and expand through everything and everyone that touches us.

We must learn to use our growth to its fullest extent.

Rather than ask why we should ask, what can I do with my experience

 that will be fruitful and beneficial to others and to myself?

                                                                                                      

                                                                                                          Marnel Maddox Stuart, Florida

Chris and Beng Im have done well in using their growth to inform others through their book Knowing Your Breasts.

DATIN PADUKA SERI ENDON MAHMOOD

Contents

Foreword by Y.A.Bhg. Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood, wife of Y.A.B. Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister Malaysia.

Preface

Knowing Your Breasts ....................................................................................... 1

Structure of the Breasts................................................................................... ..2 

Breast Development and Effects of Hormones............................................ 6

Changes in the Breasts....................................................................................... 7

Cysts vs. Tumours............................................................................................... 9

Other Breast Disorders...................................................................................... 13

Do Not Be Complacent.................................................................................... 17

Breast Cancer.................................................................................................... 18

Causes of Breast Cancer................................................................................. 19

Preventive Steps for Breast Cancer............................................................... 31

Dos and Don'ts in Breast Cancer Prevention............................................... 35

The Early Detection of  Breast Cancer......................................................... 56

Lumps! Don't Panic .......................................................................................... 59

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK

In order to order to understand breast health, it is important that we first understand the basic structure of the breasts.

The function of the breasts or mammae is to produce milk for the new-born baby.  In the male, the breasts remain as rudimentary structures, while in the female they develop into hemispherical structures.  In women, the left breast is generally a little larger than the right breast.  Also, one breast may be placed lower than the other.

. . . The lymphatic drainage of the breasts has important implications in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.  If the primary cancer in the breast has spread to the lymphatic vessels, the chances are that the lymph nodes in the armpits may be affected and lumps develop. . . . In a mastectomy the lymph nodes in the armpit are usually or routinely surgically excised.  As a result, the patient’s arms may swell tremendously.  It is said that new lymphatic vessels develop a few months later and the swelling slowly subsides.  However, in some unfortunate cases, the arm becomes hard and bloated and nothing can be done.

. . . Cysts are much more common than tumours.  They commonly occur in women.  A cyst is rarely malignant or harmful.  It may be firm or flaccid.  A firm cyst can be easily felt, if it is large enough.  A flaccid cyst is filled with fluids and is liken to a water balloon surrounded by a thin membrane.  Cysts may form singly or there may be many of them in the breasts.  They can also recur.  The cause of cyst formation is unknown.  Aspiration with the use of a fine needle can deflate the cyst or cause it to collapse.  Unfortunately, this does not mean that the cyst will not reappear.

. . . The word tumour is derived from Latin, tumere, meaning to swell.  So a malignant tumour is a mass of cancerous cells.  It is solid.  For this reason, a mammography can identify tumours, but not cyst, with certainty.  Not all tumours are malignant.  In fact, benign or non-cancerous tumours are the most common form of breast tumours.  Take comfort that benign tumours do not transform into cancerous tumours.  However, a person who has had benign tumours may hava a slightly increased cancer risk elsewhere in the same or other breast in the later part of life.  Removing a benign tumour does not alter a person’s breast cancer risk.

. . .  A fribroadenoma is a kind of breast fibroid made up of both fibrous and glandular tissues.  It is the harmless overgrowth of normal breast tissues.  . . .  A giant fibroadenoma has the size of an egg.  A fibroadenoma feels hard and slippery like a marble. . . . Calcification of a fibroadenoma can also occur among younger women but mammography may not be able to distinguish it with certainty.  So a biopsy is necessary.

. . . The incidence of breast cancer increases dramatically with age after menopause.  Therefore, if you are on HRT there may a slight chance that your risk of developing breast cancer is also increased. . . .  Estrogens in HRT are carcinogenic.

. . . Diethylstilbesterol (DES) During the 1940s – 1970s, this synthetic, female hormone was administered to pregnant women.  It was to produce chubby babies besides preventing miscarriages and related problems of pregnancies.  Later, it was found that their daughters were prone to cancers of the vagina, cervix and breasts.  Their sons had deformed male organs, . . .  Since then, DES has been banned for human use. . . . the use of DES has been allowed in animal feed as a growth hormone as DES-fed animals attain market weights faster.

. . . Know That Cancer Can Be Prevented . . . Marilyn Gentry, president of the American Institute of Cancer Research, said: Cancer can be prevented and your actions play a vital role in making lower cancer risk a reality to you and your family . . . there are things you can do today to reduce your risk of caner.  Not quick but basic lifestyle and dietary changes that will mean a lower cancer risk for life (in Stopping Cancer Before it Starts).