More than one in ten women will face breast cancer during her lifetime. It represents the leading cause of cancer death among women. But good news, this cancer is early detection and cure. Test your knowledge!
1) Chemotherapy is a treatment that uses:
Medicines.
Chemotherapy is a spread in the body of drugs developed to destroy cancer cells.
2) No need to feel the breasts themselves because only the doctor knows correctly perform this gesture detection.
Wrong.
Every woman needs in her home, make very regular autopalpation breasts and armpits, as specifically indicated by your doctor. If an abnormality is seen, it is necessary to consult the doctor confirms it, too by palpation. When necessary, he will prescribe a mammogram or an ultrasound. However, autopalpation does not replace that of the doctor, which must be done once a year, starting in 30 years.
3) A lump in the breast is always carcinogen.
Wrong.
Examined in five sizes, four were benign. Thus, the announcement of a lump, and we must consider the relative screening without undue anxiety.
4) In the absence of risk factors, we must have a mammogram:
Every two years from 50 years.
5) A woman who has already been treated for breast cancer is more likely to make another on the other breast.
True.
This is indeed the case for 15% of women treated for breast cancer. Therefore patients with a history staff have a very strict medical supervision, at least annually, and life.
6) Breastfeeding is one of risk factors.
Wrong.
Conversely, breastfeeding offers significant protection against breast cancer. However, rules very early, before age 12, and late menopause increase the risk of breast cancer.
7) In case of family history of breast cancer, the risk increases of:
50%.
If your mother or your sisters were suffering from breast cancer, your risk of being impaired as is multiplied by two. You must, more than anyone, be medically monitored annually.
8) Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer, larynx, esophagus and mouth, but not of breast cancer.
Wrong.
Smoking also increases breast cancer, and particularly as women have smoked youth, especially before age 20. Young women who smoked before age 20 increase their risk of breast cancer by almost 20%.
9) The pill may increase the risk of breast cancer.
True.
If the pill is taken for less than 8 years, the risk of breast cancer decreases. In contrast, the risk increases beyond 8 years. It is recommended to change the method of contraception after 8 years, for example by choosing the IUD.
10) The neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is fulfilled:
Before surgery
The so-called neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is chemotherapy that is done before surgery. It reduces the size of the tumor and thus facilitate the surgical gesture.
Conversely, the so-called adjuvant chemotherapy is done after surgery to reduce the risk of recurrence. It is usually prescribed over a period of more than six months.
11) Treatment with chemotherapy requires hospitalization of two or three days.
Wrong.
Most often, drugs are injected by venous infusion, subcutaneous or intra-muscular (in the buttocks). Note that to facilitate frequent infusions, it is a catheter (tube end placed in a deep vein) or an implantable port (the hose is connected to a housing which is slipped under the skin).
This treatment does not require hospitalization, it is administered as an outpatient, ie it takes to get to the hospital, but only for a few hours. It may also possibly be done at home, but only as part of a hospital at home.
But recently, chemotherapy drugs are also available as tablets that you take at home. This new form is very advantageous increasingly common. Follow-up consultations are necessary.
Ultimately, the patient is hospitalized only when monitoring is required.
12) The mammotome is a variant of the biopsy.
True.
Until very recently, in cases of questionable mammogram, it should proceed to a biopsy surgery, requiring general anesthesia and therefore hospitalization. In recent months, we can use a new method of detection, by mammotome macrobiopsie. It allows taking samples at outpatient breast, in a simple, fast and efficient with a sensitivity close to 100%.
13) Metastasis is:
When the tumor spreads throughout the body.
14) The hair loss is a side effect that may occur:
After chemotherapy.
Hair loss in some cases chemotherapy is not the only side effect of treatment of breast cancer (nausea, fatigue, vomiting ...), but the most visible and most traumatic.
15) Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause has been accused of increasing the risk of breast cancer.
True.
However, some studies show that the French association estrogen skin and natural micronized progesterone, which is widely prescribed in France, is not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
