PREVENTION / THINGS YOU SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR

• - Any tumor or mass in your breast
• - Any change in your breast skin, such as redness
• - Any tumor under the axilla
• - Any change in the form of your breast or your nipple
• - Any abnormal liquid secretion from your nipple, or a liquid that contains blood
• - Any incurable ulceration on your skin or your nipple

When any of the above symptoms appear, a woman should not panic nor wait. She has to go to see her doctor immediately. In most of the times,  the change or the inflammation might be a benign tumor, such as: a water, milk or lipid cyst, or microbial infection or fibrosis. But in other cases, these symptoms or changes might be the beginning of the growth of a malignant tumor. Therefore, calmly and without any panic, she has to consult a doctor to examine her and guide her to additional examinations to be reassured or to start treatment.

Changes and signs that women should be aware of:

- Redness in the breast can be a sign of microbial infection. It is a symptom that requires an antibiotic, but it might be a sign of a tumor in the breast that necessitates the consultation of a doctor and an immediate follow-up by the physician.

- Swelling during pregnancy or breast-feeding might be normal engorge- ment. However, if it persists, it should not be neglected, and a doctor should be consulted. Some of these cases might be malignant tumors fed by the high percentage of female hormones in the body during pregnancy. Unfortunately, many cases are diagnosed after they have grown large be- cause the patient or her doctor missed them.

- A tumor may grow slowly and cause skin ulceration during pregnancy or breast-feeding. The woman might be shy to tell her relatives or friends, so the tumor grows and advances locally and goes to the axilla, and may spread to other parts of the body. In all of these cases, shyness and fear have to be set aside, and a woman has to consult her doctor immediately in order not to lose the cure opportunity.