Breast cancer physical examination

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Mirdula Sharma, MBBS [2]

Physical Examination

General Appearance

• Patients with breast cancer are generally well appearing.Patients are generally oriented to time, place, and person.

Neck

Enlarged supraclavicular lymph nodes

Breast

• Lump

• may be attached to the skin or chest wall and cannot be moved.
• The lump may feel hard, irregular in shape and very different from the rest of the breast tissue
• The lump may be tender, but it is usually not painful.

• Dimpling of the skin
• Peau d'orange

• thickening and dimpling of the skin

• Change in size of affected breast
• Inverted nipple
• Redness, swelling and increased warmth - in Inflammatory breast cancer
• Crusting, ulcers or scaling on the nipple - in Paget's disease of breast
• Discharge from nipple - mostly bloody

Respiratory

Signs of metastasis

• Pleural effusion
• Consolidation

Abdomen

Signs of metastasis to liver

• Jaundice
• Hepatomegaly
• Ascites

Extremity

Signs of metastasis

• Bone tenderness
• Pathological fractures

Neuromuscular

Signs of metastasis

• Headache
• Seizure
• Personality change
• Papilloedema