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This is Dr. David Cathcart from Heartland Regional Medical Center, and we're going to
talk about breast cancer. Breast cancer, of course, resides in the breast, usually, mostly
in women. Breast cancer starts in the breast. It usually doesn't come from other parts of
the body and metastasize to the breast. Although, I suppose in some cases it can. But typically,
it actually starts in the breast tissue itself. And the far majority of the time, this is
a hereditary problem. So in women who have strong family histories of breast cancer,
those are the ones who are most at risk for developing breast cancer. And so, the cells
grow in the breast. It is usually first discovered as a painless lump. Most breast cancers are
not typically painful. That's not to say that a painful mass cannot be breast cancer, because
it certainly can. But more likely, painful masses are other things. So typically, breast
lumps that are rapidly growing in size, that are non-painful. They may attach to the underside
of the skin and cause some skin retraction or perhaps even *** retraction. They may
make the breast look asymmetrical, when compared to the other. Those are all signs of breast
cancer and need to be evaluated by your doctor. And the ways they can evaluate those is by
mammography, which is like an x-ray of the breast, or sometimes with ultrasound. This
is Dr. David Cathcart, talking about breast cancer.