Diagnosing Breast Cancer
Listen to Dr. Dennis Citrin explain several ways of diagnosing breast cancer. He encourages women to tell their doctor as early as possible about any symptoms they may be experiencing.
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Dr Dennis Citrin: Well the fundamental approach to treating a patient with breast cancer, the number one is diagnosis should be as early as possible. So if a patient has any symptoms, those symptoms should not be ignored.
For patients concerned about her breasts, we listen to the patient. And even a negative mammogram doesn’t mean for one moment that the patient is necessarily cancer free, so if a patient has any concerns about her breasts we investigate that fully. And that often will require a whole range of very sophisticated diagnostic tests that we have available here: mammogram, ultrasound, MRI, and other imaging modalities.
Once a diagnosis is made, we really want to individualize the treatment because no two patients are the same; and no two cancers are the same. So our goal is to do that by developing a treatment plan which is specific for that woman and her disease. The different types of breast cancer - although the basics principals of surgery and radiation and medical oncology apply there - are major differences in how they are applied. And that is my job as a member of the team to help develop a specific treatment plan for the individual patient.