Ladies – Watch for Orange Peel Skin
Wed, July 26, 2006 at 04:17AM Women have been taught of the importance of doing their own breast exams regularly, but they may not have been taught to include a visual inspection of the skin over the breast. When I was a medical student, we were demonstrated the ‘peau d’orange’ on a woman’s breast when she had a rapidly-growing cancer beneath it. The orange-peel skin appearance is due to blocked lymph vessels in the skin, causing redness, swelling, and warmth, with occasional pits or grooves due to the hair follicles tethering the skin to the deeper tissues. This is now considered as a very rare form of breast cancer – ‘inflammatory breast cancer’. Some Internet pages have pictures of peau d’orange. (Actually, it looks a bit like cellulite, but with redness.)
It’s important to get this change evaluated quickly by an experienced physician; it may mean a biopsy of the skin, perhaps including tissue beneath it; absence of a lump doesn’t mean there’s no cancer. Better safe than sorry.
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Just wanted to nip in after registering and say hello to everyone on the board.