Breast care explained

AI-assisted radiology is the use of trained pattern-recognition software to scan a medical image, most commonly a mammogram, and flag areas the software considers…

Atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) is a benign but atypical change in the cells lining the breast ducts (sitting between normal tissue and ductal carcinoma…

Autologous reconstruction is breast reconstruction using the patient’s own tissue (most commonly skin and fat from the lower abdomen, but also from the thigh,…

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are two genes that, when working normally, help repair DNA damage in cells; inherited mutations in either gene substantially increase the…

Breast cancer risk assessment is a structured calculation of an individual’s lifetime and 10-year risk of breast cancer, based on family history, personal factors,…

Breast cancer screening is the routine use of imaging (usually mammography) to look for early breast cancer in women who have no symptoms, with…

A breast cyst is a benign (non-cancerous) fluid-filled sac that forms in the breast tissue, most common in women in their 40s and early…

A breast lump is any area of thickening or distinct swelling that feels different from the surrounding breast tissue, and it can be a…

A breast MRI is a detailed imaging test that uses a strong magnetic field and an injection of contrast dye to produce three-dimensional pictures…

Breast pain, also called mastalgia, is one of the most common breast symptoms, usually benign and most often hormonal in origin, with cyclical breast…

A breast prosthesis is an external, wearable form, usually silicone, designed to sit inside a bra or be attached to the chest wall, recreating…

Breast reconstruction is surgery to rebuild the shape of a breast after part or all of it has been removed for cancer or for…

A breast ultrasound is a painless imaging test that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce live images of the breast tissue, used to investigate…

A core biopsy is a needle procedure that takes small cylindrical samples of tissue from a breast lesion under local anaesthetic, usually guided by…

Delayed reconstruction is breast reconstruction performed months or years after the original mastectomy, rather than at the same operation: usually chosen when radiotherapy is…

A DIEP flap is a type of breast reconstruction that rebuilds the breast using skin and fat from the lower abdomen, transferred with its…

Ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, is an early, non-invasive breast cancer in which abnormal cells are contained within the lining of a milk…

A family history of breast cancer is a pattern of breast or ovarian cancer in close relatives that raises a person’s own lifetime risk…

A fibroadenoma is a smooth, firm, mobile, benign (non-cancerous) lump in the breast made of normal glandular and connective tissue, most common in women…

Grade describes how aggressive a breast cancer’s cells appear under the microscope, scored 1 to 3; stage describes how far the cancer has spread,…

HER2 is a protein on the surface of cells that, when present in unusually high amounts, drives cancer cell growth, and breast cancers that…

Immediate reconstruction is breast reconstruction performed at the same operation as a mastectomy (the patient wakes up with a reconstructed breast in place) rather…

Implant reconstruction is breast reconstruction using a silicone implant (placed at the time of mastectomy or in a staged operation) to recreate breast volume…

Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer that presents with rapid-onset redness, swelling, and skin thickening of the breast,…

An intraductal papilloma is a small, benign, wart-like growth that develops inside one of the milk ducts (on core biopsy it is often classified…

Invasive ductal carcinoma is the most common type of invasive breast cancer, accounting for around 70–80% of cases[^1], a cancer that began in the…

Invasive lobular carcinoma is the second most common type of invasive breast cancer, accounting for around 10–15% of cases (UK figures around 15%)[^1], a…

The latissimus dorsi flap is a breast reconstruction that uses the broad muscle of the upper back, together with overlying skin and fat, rotated…

Lobular carcinoma in situ, usually shortened to LCIS, is a benign change in the lobules of the breast that is not a cancer in…

A lumpectomy (also called wide local excision or breast-conserving surgery) is a breast cancer operation that removes the cancer together with a rim of…

Lymphoedema is chronic swelling of an arm or other body part caused by impaired drainage of lymph fluid, most often after lymph nodes have…

A mammogram is a low-dose X-ray of the breast, used both to screen for breast cancer in women who have no symptoms and to…

A mastectomy is the surgical removal of the whole breast (the breast tissue and, depending on the type, some or all of the overlying…

Mastitis is inflammation of the breast tissue, often (though not always) associated with breastfeeding; a breast abscess is a localised collection of pus that…

A medical AI scribe is a software tool that listens to a clinical consultation, transcribes what is said, and produces a structured clinic note[^1],…

What are microcalcifications in the breast? Microcalcifications are tiny specks of calcium that show up on a mammogram as small white dots: most are…

A multidisciplinary team meeting (usually called an MDT meeting) is a regular structured discussion in which a group of breast cancer specialists (radiologist, pathologist,…

A nipple-sparing mastectomy is a mastectomy that removes all the breast tissue but preserves both the breast skin envelope and the nipple-areolar complex, allowing…

The oestrogen receptor (ER) is a protein in some breast cells that binds to the hormone oestrogen and signals the cell to grow. And…

Oncoplastic surgery is an approach to breast cancer surgery that combines complete removal of the cancer with cosmetic-surgery techniques to preserve or improve the…

A phyllodes tumour is an uncommon fibroepithelial breast lesion that resembles a fibroadenoma on imaging but behaves differently. It tends to grow more rapidly,…

A risk-reducing mastectomy is the surgical removal of healthy breast tissue, almost always bilateral and almost always with immediate reconstruction, performed to reduce the…

A sentinel lymph node biopsy is an operation to remove the first few lymph nodes (usually one to four) that drain the breast, to…

A skin-sparing mastectomy is a mastectomy that removes the breast tissue and the nipple but preserves most of the breast skin envelope, allowing immediate…

Tomosynthesis is a refinement of mammography that takes multiple thin-slice X-ray images of the breast at different angles and reconstructs them into a 3D…

What is triple assessment in breast cancer? Triple assessment is the standard UK approach to investigating a breast lump or other new symptom, combining…

Triple-negative breast cancer is a subtype of breast cancer in which the cancer cells test negative for all three of the standard treatment-targeting receptors:…