Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be going through breast lumps.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash breast slash lumps

or in the breast surgery section of the zero definals surgery book. So let's get

straight into it. There are numerous causes of breast lumps, many of which are benign or non-cancerous.

Any breast lump needs a thorough assessment to exclude breast cancer. Let's start by talking about

the basic anatomy of the breast.

The breast sit in front of the chest wall, which contains the ribs and the pectoral muscles.

Most of the breast is adipose or fatty tissue. The ariola surrounds the nipple.

Behind the nipple are the duct which lead into the lobules,

which is where breast milk is produced. Milk is secreted from the lobules through the ducks

and out of the openings on the nipple. Let's start with breast cancer as a cause of breast lumps.

The most significant differential of a breast lump and the one that you don't want to miss is breast cancer. Triple assessment of a breast lump is a standard practice to exclude or diagnose breast cancer.

This involves clinical assessment with a history and examination, imaging with an ultrasound scan

or a mammogram, and histology with a fine needle aspiration or core biopsy.

The clinical features that may suggest breast cancer as a cause of a breast lump are

lumps that are hard, irregular, painless or fixed in place.

The lump may be tethered to the skin or to the chest wall, meaning that you can't move it

around under the skin or above the chest wall. There may be nipple retraction, and there may be

skin dimpling or edema, which can cause

ponderange, or orange peel-like skin. The nice guidelines last updated in January 2021

recommend a two-week-weight referral for suspected breast cancer for an unexplained breast

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