OVER 55,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK and spotting it early can be life saving.
Some of the main symptoms include a lump or bump on the breast or armpit, but experts have now revealed a troubling symptom that can show up on the skin.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), doctors in India explained the case of a 65-year-old man who presented at a dermatology clinic in Jhajjar.
The man explained how he had experienced a thickening of the skin over the left side of his chest and on his left arm.
He said that this had been happening for seven months – but that it did not give him any pain.
Medics examined the man and found that the skin on the left side of the chest and on the left nipple was sclerotic.
This is when the skin tissue hardens and tightens.
The medics also found multiple erythematous nodules on the left arm and lymphedema in the left arm and left axillary lymphadenopathy were present.
Erythematous nodules is an inflammatory condition and can be a sign of cancer and Lymphedema is the build-up of fluid in soft body tissues when the lymph system is damaged or blocked.
Axillary lymphadenopathy refers to a change in the lymph nodes in the armpit.
The experts took a skin biopsy which showed metastatic carcinoma that was strongly suggestive of a primary breast cancer.
Breast Cancer Now states that primary breast cancer is breast cancer that hasn’t spread beyond the breast or the lymph nodes (glands) under the arm.
They explain: “Breast cancer starts when cells in the breast begin to divide and grow in an abnormal way.
“Breast cancer is not one single disease and there are several types.”
Medics attributed the skin issues to carcinoma en cuirasse, a rare form of cutaneous breast cancer metastasis that results in extensive fibrosis of the skin and subcutaneous tissues of the chest wall.
