There is no sure way to prevent breast cancer. But there are
things you can do that might lower your risk., such as changing risk factors
that are under your control. For example, body weight, physical activity, and diet have all been linked to breast cancer,
so these might be areas where you can take action. Sign up
for this Summer’s Wellness Challenge to both earn vacation hours and increase healthy
behaviors!
Breast cancers that are found
because they can be felt, tend to be larger and are more likely to have already
spread beyond the breast. But screening exams, like mammograms, can often find breast cancers
when they are small and still confined to the breast.
The
mammogram and clinical breast exam are the main tests recommended by the
American Cancer Society to find breast cancer early. For women who are at high
risk of breast cancer due to certain factors, the American Cancer Society also
recommends breast MRI. Receive a
mammogram and earn a half hour of vacation time when you submit your End-of-Year
summary. For more details see the 2015 Activity Menu.
It’s also
recommended that all women, beginning in their 20s, perform monthly self-breast
exams. Lie down on your back and place your right arm behind your head. The
exam is done while lying down, not standing up. This is because when lying down
the breast tissue spreads evenly over the chest wall and is as thin as
possible, making it much easier to feel all the breast tissue.
Use the
finger pads of the 3 middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in the
right breast. Use overlapping dime-sized circular motions of the finger pads to
feel the breast tissue.
Use 3
different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue. Light pressure is
needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin; medium pressure to feel a little
deeper; and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs. It
is normal to feel a firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast, but you
should tell your doctor if you feel anything else out of the ordinary. If
you’re not sure how hard to press, talk with your doctor or nurse. Use each
pressure level to feel the breast tissue before moving on to the next spot.
Move
around the breast in an up and down pattern starting at an imaginary line drawn
straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the
middle of the chest bone (sternum or breastbone). Be sure to check the entire
breast area going down until you feel only ribs and up to the neck or collar
bone (clavicle).
There is some evidence to suggest that the up-and-down pattern
(sometimes called the vertical pattern) is the most
effective pattern for covering the entire breast without missing any breast
tissue.
Repeat
the exam on your left breast, putting your left arm behind your head and using
the finger pads of your right hand to do the exam.
While
standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing firmly down on your
hips, look at your breasts for any changes of size, shape, contour, or
dimpling, or redness or scaliness of the nipple or breast skin. (The pressing
down on the hips position contracts the chest wall muscles and enhances any
breast changes.)
Examine
each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your arm only slightly
raised so you can easily feel in this area. Raising your arm straight up
tightens the tissue in this area and makes it harder to examine.
This
procedure for doing breast self-exam is different from previous
recommendations. These changes represent an extensive review of the medical
literature and input from an expert advisory group. There is evidence that this
position (lying down), the area felt, pattern of coverage of the breast, and
use of different amounts of pressure increase a woman’s ability to find
abnormal areas.
