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Breast Cancer › Diagnosis
When to seek medical care
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First, make sure your doctor is fully up to date on your medical history and possible family links to cancer. Your physician should have a full scope of your entire medical record in order to make an accurate diagnosis. Enlarged lymph nodes under the arms or neck and any of the mentioned changes in the breast will be examined thoroughly to rule out the possibility of cancer or to prepare to treat cancer if it is discovered.
Mammograms may al
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| Breast cancer stages |
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so be administered, even if it was a mammogram that first detected the breast cancer. If this is the case, your doctor will want to confirm that the lump does, indeed, exist and verify the area the lump was detected.
In order to ascertain whether or not the lump is cancerous, your doctor will then perform a biopsy, in which a sample of the suspected tissue will be removed for microscopic evaluation. Biopsies also help determine what type of cancer may be present, as some cancers have less of a chance of spreading outside the breast than others.
If cancer is detected via biopsy, your doctor will immediately discuss various treatment options with you.
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