ASSESSMENT OF BREAST CANCER INCIDENCE IN PATIENTS WITH MASTALGIA AND ROUTINE SCREENING

About 70% of the women experiences breast pain once in their life time1. Mastalgia is described as tension, discomfort, and ache in breast1. The prevalence of cancer in patients manifesting with breast pain is reported to be 0.3-2% 2. As breast cancer awareness increases, the concern that breast pain may indicate malignancy contributes to the tendency of breast pain to be the most common breast symptom and leads to a woman consulting a breast surgeon3. Breast pain is categorized broadly in to two types; cyclical and non-cyclical breast pain. Cyclical mastalgia is a unilateral or bilateral pattern of pain or tenderness, frequently associated with swelling that reduces with the menstrual cycle. Noncyclic mastalgia tends to be unilateral and is more local than cyclical breast pain. The location of the pain can usually be localized. Typically, most women who had non cyclic mastalgia are in the fourth or fifth decade of life at the time of diagnosis.

Self-discovered breast cancer symptoms and women's help seeking behaviour: key findings from phase one of a two-phase study

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the western world. In Ireland, breast cancer was the most common cancer diagnosed amongst women during 2000-2004 with approximately 3,095 cases reported annually and an average of 947 deaths. It is well known that the earlier the diagnosis of breast cancer is made the more likely it is that women will have a better health outcome. However, 20-30% of women wait for one month or more before presenting to a Health Care Professional with a self discovered breast symptom. This is a worrying situation given the increased emphasis on prompt presentation of symptoms and the associated link with better health care outcomes for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Therefore, more work on help-seeking behaviour from the woman’s perspective will help Health Care Professionals to understand women’s needs and concerns surrounding symptom discovery and highlight the key issues linked to delayed ...