Question: How do you find about a new cancer?

Vicky Forster answered on 11 Nov 2013:

Hi Katie,

Do you mean, how do people find out they have cancer? Well sometimes people with cancer can find a lump on themselves, such as much of the time in breast cancer. In this case, the person generally finds the lump and then goes to their GP to have it checked out. It is most of the time non-cancerous (benign), but sometimes unfortunately it can be cancer. However many people with cancer do not find lumps. Sometimes this can be because there are no lumps – for example in leukaemia, blood cell production goes wrong – but there are no lumps, or the lump may be in a place in the body where it can’t be felt easily from the outside. These people will sometimes start feeling unwell, maybe very tired, sick etc, but the symptoms vary widely. Once they are referred to an oncologist (cancer doctor) the doctor will do lots of scans, blood tests and sometimes even take a biopsy of the tumour (taking a bit of the tumour with a needle, or by doing surgery to remove a piece of it). Scientists can then look at this tumour biopsy, so we can find out exactly what type of cancer it is, and how best to treat that person with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery.

I hope that is the answer you were looking for, but if not, please do ask another question!