ABSTRACT
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in females, on an average approximately one in seven middle-aged women have a risk of developing the disease at some point during their lifetime. Currently four intrinsic subtypes of invasive disease are described: luminal A tumour, luminal B tumour, HER2 enriched, and Basal-like. Public health medicine and patient awareness campaigns and breast screening has led to more patients with breast cancer being diagnosed at an earlier stage, and better outcome. The most common site for distant metastases is the skeleton. Other sites include liver, lung, brain and skin. For those patients not diagnosed by screening, the majority present with a painless breast lump or distortion of the breast, which might be associated with a blood-stained nipple discharge. ‘Triple assessment’ comprises physical examination, radiological assessment, mammography and ultrasonography, and pathology obtained by fine needle aspiration or core biopsy.
