Women with large breasts are at an increased risk of advanced breast cancer

The risk of nodal metastasis is higher in women with bigger breast. It is not clear if this increase is due to the size of the breast (largely related to obesity) or is the result of larger tumour size at presentation (due to delayed diagnosis). It is hypothesised that women with large breasts are more likely to have node positive disease mainly attributable to their breast size.

One hundred and twenty consecutive patients who underwent mastectomy during the year 2004 and 2005 for primary breast cancers in a large Teaching Hospital were included in the study. Patient's variable and tumour variable were collected and analysed by SPSS^® computer programme.

 

It was found that big breasted women (those patients with mastectomy weight greater than 800 g) had a significantly greater tumour size than those with smaller breasts (p = 0.019, Mann-Whitney test) but there was no significant difference in grade (Kendall's tau-b = 0.055, p = 0.57) or lymph node positivity (Kendall's tau-b = 0.011, p = 0.93) between the two groups. Although, the tumour size was significantly greater in those with lymph node metastases (p < 0.001) but mastectomy weight was not found to be significantly greater in those with lymph node metastases (p = 0.11). For patients with similar tumour sizes mastectomy weight was not significantly greater in those patients with lymph node metastases (p = 0.28).

It is concluded that increased incidence of lymph node positivity at presentation big-breasted women is because of larger size of the primary tumour and not due to the size of the breast alone.

 

CANCER TUMORE AFTER OPERATION

Woman who was the owner of this breast severely neglected the cancer tumor that has developed on her breast and allowed it to grow into an unbearable size. Doctors were still able to save her life with mastectomy – surgical removal of her breasts, but still… she should have been doing her due diligence and checked her breasts regularly for any lumps or knots. Obviously, even after proper self checks have been neglected, this woman also neglected to have the lump looked at when it grown beyond hard to find size. When mastectomy was performed, her breast cancer tumor had overgrown the breast itself.

The photo of this large tumor is from the medical book that students who study to be doctors learn from. I’m assuming cancerous cells must have spread further into the tissue as surgeons removed a whole extra chunk of tissue during mastectomy that seems to reach far away from the tumor itself. Either way – the woman who allowed this breast cancer tumor to grow this big can count herself lucky that the cancer did not metastasize into other body parts so it was possible to save her life with mastectomy. She’d lost her breast, but she’s alive. Hope this was a good enough lesson for her and she’ll pay more attention to her body from now on. Breast cancer is second most common cancer in the world, after lung cancer. It should not be taken lightly.

It is concluded that increased incidence of lymph node positivity at presentation big-breasted women is because of larger size of the primary tumour and not due to the size of the breast alone.

This study demonstrates breast size bigger than 800 grams is associated with increased risk of larger tumours and large breast size alone is not associated with increased incidence to lymph node metastasis. Therefore, the advance disease at presentation of breast cancer is attributable to the size of the primary breast cancer. In the present study the lymph node positivity rate in the large and non-large breasts were similar suggesting the nodal metastases is determined by the size of the primary tumour and not by the size of the breast. There are other factors that contribute to lymph node positivity. The most significant of which include age of the patient, grade of the tumour and oestrogen receptor status. The present study found that there was no statistically significant difference between theses factors and lymph node positivity in women with large breast and small breast.