Dr Öncel Yakar’s comments

There is no scientific basis for the belief that ‘the disease spreads with a biopsy’ among individuals. It is not possible for a benign mass to become malignant by taking a tissue sample from it. Cells belonging to a malignant mass from the beginning may spread microscopically during the biopsy procedure. Since the biopsy area is also treated during definitive treatment, this procedure alone does not pose any additional problems.

Breast health plays an important role in every woman’s life. This is based on the facts that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and that early diagnosis and treatment significantly increase life expectancy thanks to screening methods. While stricter follow-up and examination protocols are applied in women with certain risk factors, women with no risk factors should also have breast screening regularly for these reasons. Standard breast screening guidelines recommend that women should perform breast self-examination from the age of 20, and additionally, from the age of 40, breast imaging with clinical examination and mammography once a year. In this section, especially in the twenty-fifth year of her profession and as a female surgeon, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Didem Öncel Yakar answers the questions frequently asked by you. We are with you to manage your routine annual scans and appropriate examination-surgery-treatment processes in our practice in Ataşehir.