Photograph by Jodi Krautkramer

Todd Riley, left, spoke on Oct. 28 for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

UW-Platteville physician Todd Riley spoke in the Women’s Center on Oct. 28 about breast cancer to help promote awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.   He discussed what breast cancer is, risk factors, how to diagnose it and treatment options.

“Some of the risk factors include:  Sex, age, genetics, family history, previous radiation to the chest as a young woman and obesity,” Riley said. “If you are obese, losing weight is the most widely accepted way to reduce your risk for breast cancer.”

According to the American Cancer Society, there are 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer in 2009 alone, more than 40,000 deaths that are breast cancer related this year.

According to the American Cancer Society, “Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that starts from the cells of the breast.  There are a few different types of breast cancer:  Ductal carcinoma, lobular carcinoma, and invasive carcinoma.  Invasive ductal carcinoma makes up about 90 percent of all breast cancers.  Invasive means it has already grown beyond the cells that it started from.”

When we think of breast cancer, many of us think of discovering a lump on our breast.

“A lump is an extremely common way of detecting breast cancer, but most lumps are benign, meaning they are not cancerous,” Riley said. Other ways to detect breast cancer are mammograms or changes in your breast.  The size of your nipple, redness, a new dimple or a bloody discharge are common indicators that you should get it checked out.

“A mammogram is an X-ray of the breast that is usually discomforting for many women,” Riley said. “The X-ray is looking for calcium deposits that are either benign or malignant.”

Once you have identified that the breast cancer is malignant, there are different types of treatment you can undergo. Some of the treatments include a lumpectomy and a mastectomy.

“A lumpectomy removes the lump from the breast and a mastectomy removes the whole breast,” Riley said. “You have to be aware that even if you are diagnosed with the same type of breast cancer and in the same stage of breast cancer as someone else, it does not mean you will have the same treatment plan.  Every case of breast cancer is treated individually.”

If you are unsure of a lump or change that you may have, contact your doctor, even if you think it’s nothing. “According to the TNM staging system, there is a 100 percent five year survival rate,” Riley said.

To find out more on breast cancer, visit cancer.org.