Diagnosis

Authors: Sarah Gierahn Nielsen, med. student & Hanne Melgaard Nielsen, MD

10% of all females are diagnosed with breast cancer in Denmark. BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations with a genetic disposition to breast cancer have an even higher risk of breast cancer.

Carcinoma of the breast is diagnosed by the “Triple test”

1. The clinical examination of the patient with inspection and palpation of the breasts
2. Mammography and ultra sonography
3. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) or core needle biopsy (CNB) 

Prognostic factors

• Tumor size > 2cm
• Axillary lymph node involvement
• Age of patient
• Histologic grade of cancer cells
• Histologic subtype
• Receptor status (eg. estrogen and progesterone)
• HER 2 gene overexpression
• BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 mutations