Those symptoms after breast cancer?

Typical Symptoms

Early symptoms

The symptoms of early breast cancer are mostly not obvious and are often dominated by local symptoms such as breast lumps, breast skin abnormalities, nipple discharge, nipple or areola abnormalities, etc., which are very easy to ignore because of the inconspicuous manifestations.

The following describes the different typical manifestations in detail.

Breast lumps

Breast lumps are the most common symptom of early breast cancer. The breast is divided into cross sections, and the lumps are often located at the outer upper limit. They are mostly unilateral and single, hard, with irregular edges, and the surface is not smooth, and it is not easy to be pushed. Most breast cancers are painless lumps, and a few cases are accompanied by varying degrees of dull pain or tingling.

Breast skin abnormalities

Breast lumps are often easy to invade the surrounding local tissues, which makes a variety of signs appear. When the lump invades the ligament between the gland and the skin, it can pull the skin to form a depression, like a dimple, so it is called the "dimple sign".

When cancer cells block the lymphatic vessels, it can cause lymphedema, and the breast skin will look like orange peel, also known as the "orange peel sign".

When cancer cells infiltrate into the skin and grow, they can form scattered hard skin nodules around the main lesion, that is, "skin satellite nodules".

Special types of breast cancer, such as inflammatory breast cancer, may cause the breast skin to become red, swollen, thickened, and hardened, with an orange peel-like appearance, gradually turning into a purple-red color similar to blood stasis.

Nipple or areola abnormalities

When a lump invades the nipple or the area below the areola, the nipple may be pulled, causing it to sink, deflect, or even completely retract behind the areola.

Special types of breast cancer, such as eczematoid nipple cancer, may cause itching of the nipple, areola, and surrounding skin on one side, with a red patchy eczema-like appearance, and the surface may have exudative scabs or keratinized desquamation. In severe cases, ulcers may form.

Nipple discharge

Some breast cancer patients may have nipple discharge on one side of the breast under non-physiological conditions (such as pregnancy and lactation), and the nature of the liquid is mostly bloody, serous, or watery.

Swollen axillary lymph nodes

When breast cancer cells fall off, they can invade the surrounding lymphatic vessels and metastasize to the local lymphatic drainage area. In the early stage, patients often show swollen axillary lymph nodes on the same side, and the swollen lymph nodes can still move.

Later, the lymph nodes grow from small to large, from few to many, and finally fuse and fix each other. As the disease progresses, metastatic lymph nodes can be felt on the clavicle and the opposite axilla.

Accompanying Symptoms

Breast cancer patients will have cachexia in the middle and late stages, which may be accompanied by symptoms such as loss of appetite, anorexia, weight loss, fatigue, anemia, and fever. Some patients may have symptoms of metastatic lesions due to metastasis, mainly in the lungs, pleura, bones, liver, and brain.

Lung and pleural metastasis

The lungs are a common metastatic site of breast cancer, often manifested as bilateral multiple nodules. Patients may have symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and chest pain. Pleural metastasis is mainly manifested by cough, fatigue, weakness, dyspnea, and some patients have chest pain.

Bone metastasis

The most vulnerable parts of bone metastasis are the spine, ribs, pelvis, and long bones, and may also appear in the scapula, skull, and other parts, mainly manifested as bone pain, hypercalcemia, elevated alkaline phosphatase, elevated lactate dehydrogenase, etc.

Liver metastasis

When the liver metastasis is small, there are no special symptoms. When the mass is large or the range is wide, there may be hepatomegaly, pain in the liver area, decreased appetite, abdominal distension, etc. In the late stage, symptoms such as jaundice and ascites may appear.

Brain metastasis

Brain metastasis is mainly manifested as metastasis of the meninges and brain parenchyma. The clinical manifestations of brain parenchyma metastasis are mainly increased intracranial pressure, manifested as headache, vomiting, and papilledema, and epileptic seizures may occur. The main manifestations of meningeal metastasis are meningeal irritation signs, cranial nerve involvement, increased intracranial pressure, etc.