Breast Cancer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Breast Cancer - Essay Example little more than 2.47 million women who had experienced having breast cancer, women should be informed the proper way of conducting a self-breast examination as a way of increasing their chances of survival. For this study, the student nurse will discuss the importance of breast cancer screening followed by explaining the proper way to screen breast cancer and the step-by-step physical assessment to enable women detect early signs of breast cancer. Healthy women should undergo the most common screening test like mammogram at least once a year in order to detect signs of breast cancer at an early stage. (Breast Cancer, 2009a) Early detection of breast cancer is important since women can have higher chances of survival. This is because of the fact that early stage cancer is easier to treat as compared to late stage breast cancer. (Breast Cancer, 2008g) Aside from the use of mammogram test, other ways to screen signs of early stage breast cancer is through the use of other imaging test like the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Breast Cancer, 2008c). The blood marker tests can also be considered when screening a patient. In case cancer protein or blood markers like CA 15.3, TRU-QUANT, CA 27.29, CA125, and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is present in the blood (Breast Cancer, 2008a), there is a strong possibility that the patient has a breast cancer. Because of the limitations of mammogram when screening for breast cancer, the use of digital tomosynthesis is now being considered as the best alternative for mammograms (Breast Cancer, 2008d). Although a lot of physicians believe that the use of mammography is the best method for detecting breast cancer, the Mayo Clinic 2008 study result suggest that the use of molecular breast imaging (MBI) is better than mammography in terms of detecting tumors in the breast (Breast Cancer, 2008f). Also highly recommended for women who have high risk of developing breast cancer, a new technique known as the ductal lavage can be