Lois lives to tell her story.
Like a lot of women 50 and over, Lois participated in the screening program for breast cancer. But lo and behold, she found an egg-like lump in one breast in the interval (in between 2 screenings 2 years apart). She discovered it herself. There had been no mention of any abnormality in the mammography prior to the discovery. How did she find it? She did a breast self-examination. Now if you are like me, I would not know how to do this properly or how to distinguish it from normal breast tissue. She says it was a hard, rigid lump, not painful to the touch. It was not a squishy, moveable one that makes slushing noises when moved and that hurts. That could be a cyst. She was sent for a mammogram and an ultrasound immediately after. It was confirmed that she indeed had a malignant tumor at the Stage 2 level, that it was an aggressive tumor which needed to be promptly removed. And she had 16 chemo treatments over a period of 6 months.
Lois also stipulates that every woman should know her breast density. The screening program should inform you about that. The denser the breast tissue, the more difficult it is to detect any lumps. The same goes for large busted women: the larger the breasts, the more difficult it is to detect.
Now Lois is a nurse herself so she knows what to look for. You and I might need a bit of training in this regard I think.
It has been 8 years since Lois found the lump. She continues to do regular breast self-exams but is no longer in the screening program.
"Traditional mammography has an accurate rate of around 75%. Breast Cancer Scout is a new breast cancer detection test currently in clinical trials. Pre-clinical test results show that Breast Cancer Scout has an 87% accuracy rate". (source: Alberta Cancer Foundation 2019 Spring Progress Report)
I wonder if there are any other detection tools? Preferably for early on?
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