Getting a diagnosis of breast cancer

A positive diagnosis of breast cancer doesn’t mean that the medical tests stop. Once breast cancer is confirmed, further tests are necessary to determine whether the cancerous cells are sensitive to the hormone estrogen and if the cancer has spread to other areas of the body.

Finding out whether the cancer is sensitive to estrogen helps to answer the question of which treatment will be most effective. If the cells are estrogen sensitive then treatment may simply consist of estrogen-blocking drugs. If not then surgery will often be required.

The additional medical tests will also determine whether the cancerous cells have spread to other areas of the body. So for example, blood tests will show how well the liver is functioning, and thus whether the cancer has spread to the liver. Chest x-rays are used to look for evidence of lung cancer

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