One in six breast cancers don’t have lumps

Women whose breasts don’t have a lump assume they don’t have cancer, and so delay getting help, say researchers from University College London.

When they looked at the case histories of more than 2,300 women diagnosed with breast cancer in England in 2009, they discovered that 17 per cent didn’t have the typical symptom of a lump. The ‘non-lump’ symptoms, as they called them, included nipple abnormalities, breast pain, skin abnormalities, ulceration, shape abnormalities and an infected or inflamed breast. Other symptoms also included a swollen arm or armpit, or pain in the armpit.

The take-home message, say researchers, is that any sudden change in the breast needs to be investigated.

(Source: proceedings of the 2016 National Cancer Research Institute, Liverpool, November 7, 2016)

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