Get back to doing what you love. We have more experience, more treatment options and better results for your Piles and hernia care. Call 04 379 8747 to set up an appointment today!
Breast symptoms are very common, and the majority of patients presenting to the Breast Surgical Clinic have benign conditions. The most common presenting symptoms (in over two-thirds of patients) are a specific breast lump or a painful ‘lumpiness’ of the breast.
When a patient presents at a GP surgery with a breast lump, lumpiness or nipple symptoms, the concern is always whether this may be cancer rather than something that can be managed by the GP. National BASO Guidelines have been issued concerning early referrals to the breast clinic (these are updated regularly), and urgent referral to the breast clinic is needed in a significant number of cases.
Although benign breast lumps are far more common than malignant ones, breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in the UK, with 1 in 8 women in England expected to develop the disease in their lifetime, and 1 in 20 to die as a result. The rate of breast cancer diagnosis has more than tripled over the past three decades, but breast cancer mortality has gone down from 69% in 1979 to 21% in 2010, mostly due to earlier diagnosis and better multi-disciplinary team management.
The best historical example of a breast cancer was illustrated in the famous painting by Rembrandt, “Bathsheba bathing”. The model was Rembrandt’s mistress, and he clearly demonstrated the lump and associated skin indentation from the cancer in her left breast, as shown on the left.
When a patient presents to the GP with a breast lump, an assessment of the characteristics of the lump is necessary to determine if it is discrete or a diffuse nodularity. A discrete lump stands out from the surrounding breast tissue, and is usually felt with measurable borders, whilst a generalised nodularity is ill-defined lumpiness which changes with the menstrual cycle and is often present in both breasts.
Over 90% of patients seen at the breast clinic with a lump have a benign lump, but a full urgent assessment of any lump is important to rule out cancer. A cancerous lump can often look or feel the same as a benign one, and only triple assessment in a rapid access breast clinic would make the diagnosis. Triple assessment includes a clinical surgical examination, breast imaging (mammography and/or ultrasound) and cytology/ histology assessment.
For more information on laparoscopic surgery, call 04 379 8747.