Early Detection Program: Breast Cancer

It is advisable for the woman to be examined because it helps to detect the changes that occur in her breasts and, if necessary, to go to her specialist.

Breast self-examination should be performed by all women once a month.

In the case of women of childbearing age should be performed preferably one week after the end of menstruation.

In postmenopausal women should also perform it once a month, on a date easy to remember so you do not forget.

The specialists of the Clinica Universidad de Navarra advise beginning mammography checkups when the woman reaches the age of forty

In the case that there are risk factors, they should be started earlier, and the specialist will be the one to select the most appropriate exploration and periodicity.

Over the last few decades, its frequency has increased, but there has also been a significant increase in the rate of cures, which is fundamentally due to the improvement of the means, both in the training of specialists and in the appearance of new techniques and the improvement of existing ones. At the same time, the awareness of women to have medical check-ups has grown.

Periodic check-ups allow for early detection, one of the main control mechanisms for possible breast alterations. As a result of prevention campaigns and periodic check-ups in women who do not present any type of symptoms, the tumors that are discovered are increasingly smaller.

Most of the alterations that a woman may encounter throughout her life are benign, frequently of hormonal origin and related to the menstrual cycle, although many others translate into the initial phase of a breast tumor. Among the tumors may appear some benign, compared to other malignant, capable of spreading to other organs.

From the age of 50, it is time to prepare to enter this new stage of life.

The woman's body undergoes diverse changes, circumstance that makes necessary a correct gynecological, psychological, nutritional evaluation, etc.

The multidisciplinary approach to the general state of health is key in this phase of life, in which early detection of gynecological diseases is important, since with the passage of time there are more risk factors for cancer.

About 8% of breast cancer cases are hereditary.

Women who are mutation carriers are up to 10 times more likely to suffer from this pathology than women in the general population.

The Genomic Medicine Unit of the Clinica Universidad de Navarra has extensive experience in performing genetic analyses to determine:

The genetic susceptibility to different types of cancer, among them breast cancer, through the study of the BRCA1 gene (in families with cases of breast and ovarian cancer) and BRCA2 (especially in families with cases of male breast cancer).

The expected response to different chemotherapy treatments, which allows designing a personalized treatment for each patient.