How to differentiate between Breast Cancer & fibrocystic breast? – Dr. Nanda Rajaneesh

This is a very important question wherein to differentiate between the fibrocystic disease of and the lump, especially breast cancer lump. So what you should do always is you have to lie down flat on the bed and take the flat of your hand, roll your hand on your chest wall and you feel the lump that is seen. You have to compare the lump and the other normal one, that is when you put the flat of your hand in the normal as compared to the breast with the lump, you can feel the lump. If the lump is really mobile all over the breast then we call it a mouse in the breast, which is a fibroadenoma of the breast and it is well defined, which is not stuck to the breast tissue, then it is benign breast disease with fibroadenoma. Let us say that there are multiple cystic breast. Cystic breast can also look like lumpy breast, which can be very firm in consistency. Whereas breast cancer lump is a very hard lump like a stone and if you try to lift this lump, along with the breast tissue, then it will completely come up with the breast itself. That means the breast cancer lump is always adherent to the breast tissue, this is why this is a hard lump, not really mobile, and it is though sometimes it is well defined, sometimes it can be ill defined also merging with the other tissues around the breast. So this is how you clinically differentiate what lump it is, whether it is cancerous or non-cancerous. But the best most simpler another test that can tell you nearby any clinic you go. Do an ultrasound of the breast which can tell you whether it is a solid or a cystic lump of the breast first. So in the fibrocystic disease you can have cystic lump, which can merge with the breast tissue, which can look like a breast cancer. So this is the reason why it can definitely differentiate initially or you can meet the physician in the nearby hospital and he or she can different by examination also.