Breast Cancer Awareness: Don’t Delay, Check Today
Posted on in Medical Negligence
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in the UK.
- Both men and women can get breast cancer.
- It is more common in women than in men.
- Approximately 1 in 7 women develop breast cancer during their lifetime.
Cancer Research UK highlights that:
- Around 56,800 people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK.
- 15 out of 100 (15%) newly diagnosed cancers in the UK are breast cancer.
What is breast cancer?
- Breast cancer is a cancer found in the breast. Abnormal cells grow forming a tumour which then spreads.
- If the breast cancer cells spread from the first cancer in the breast to other parts of the body, this is secondary breast cancer.
What types of breast cancer can you get?
There are different types of breast cancer that develop in different parts of the breast. The treatment and prognosis will depend on the type of cancer and, often, how early it is caught.
The most common types of breast cancer are:
- Non-Invasive – the cancer cells have not yet spread into the surrounding tissue; or
- Invasive – meaning that the cancer cells have spread into the surrounding tissue – sadly, this is the most common type of breast cancer.
If a non-invasive cancer is left untreated, it may become invasive.
Symptoms of breast cancer
Symptoms of breast cancer in women may include:
- A lump or swelling in the breast, chest, or armpit
- A change to the skin of the breast
- Nipple discharge
- A change in size or shape of the breast(s)
- A change in shape or look of the nipple(s)
- Pain in the breast or armpit that does not go away
Additional symptoms may occur if the cancer spreads.
The importance of checking your breasts
It is therefore absolutely imperative that a person checks their breasts regularly for any changes and always have any changes checked by a GP.
As highlighted by Breast Cancer Now, there is no special way to check your breasts, and you do not need any training. They highlight that checking your breasts is as easy as TLC.
(T) - Touch your breasts.
(L) - Look for changes.
(C) - Check any changes with your GP.
As described by CoppaFeel – “whatever you feel, feel your chest”.
What if there has been a delay in diagnosis of my breast cancer?
With breast cancer, there is a good chance of recovery if it is detected at an early stage.
Delays in cancer diagnosis / treatment can happen for a number of reasons, ranging from:
- A delay in being able to see your GP once symptoms are reported.
- A delay or misdiagnosis made by a medical professional (for example, if your GP does not perform a correct examination, organise appropriate tests or referrals, or any investigation results are not reported correctly).
- Long waiting times – There are now 3 key cancer waiting time standards (28-day faster diagnosis standard, 62-day referral to treatment standard, and 31-day decision to treat standard). Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the NHS, as at June 2025, 2 of the 3 targets were not met.
Sadly, we have come across cases where even when a person does everything right, in terms of checking their breasts and contacting their GP, there is still a delay in their treatment. Particularly with breast cancer, early detection is key, and with any delay, treatment may be more difficult and the cancer could potentially be incurable if there are delays in diagnosis.
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