Breast awareness and breast lumps
Patient education
- Most lumps are not cancer
- Know what is normal for you
- Do not wait months to have a change looked at
Changes worth showing a health worker
Any one of these is a reason to be seen, and most of them turn out not to be cancer. Drawn as shapes, not as a body: what matters is the change, not what anybody looks like.
Drawn for AfyaMesh. Not yet checked by a clinician.
What happens after you show someone
Not every step happens to everybody. Each one leads to the next only if the one before it calls for it, and most people stop early.
Drawn for AfyaMesh. Not yet checked by a clinician.
What it is
Breast awareness is simply knowing how your own breasts normally look and feel, so that a change is something you notice rather than something you find by accident years later. Most breast lumps turn out not to be cancer. The reason to have one looked at is that the ones that are cancer are far easier to treat while they are still small.
When to seek urgent care
A lump that is hard and does not move under the skin; skin that is dimpled, broken or like orange peel; a nipple that has newly turned inward or is leaking blood; a breast that is red, hot and swollen, with or without fever; or a lump in the armpit.
What are the facts
Breast cancer is the cancer women in Cameroon are diagnosed with most often. The figures below include the one that matters most for what to do about it: where it is found late, it kills more of the women it reaches.
In Cameroon
2 824- Women were diagnosed with breast cancer during 2024, more than with any other cancer
- About 1 368 died of it
Worldwide
2.4 million- Women were diagnosed during 2024, and about 694 000 died
- Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in most countries
Diagnosed less, dying more
1 in 48- Women in countries with a low human development index die of breast cancer, although only about 1 in 27 is ever diagnosed with it
- Where the index is very high, 1 in 12 is diagnosed and 1 in 71 dies
Country comparison
Your countryEnable GPS or choose a country in the interactive reader to compare its figures with the top ten.
Fewer women are diagnosed where development is lowest, and more of them die. That gap is not a difference in the disease. It is a difference in how late it is found and how reliably it is treated.
How to read these numbers
The WHO fact sheet states these as lifetime risks of 1 in 12, 1 in 71, 1 in 27 and 1 in 48. The bars convert them to women per 100 so the four can be compared on one scale; the original wording is on each bar.
The human development index groups countries by income, education and life expectancy together. It is not a statement about any individual woman, and Cameroon's own breast cancer survival has not been measured nationally.
Cameroon has no national cancer registry covering the whole country. GLOBOCAN estimates its figures from regional rates and modelled survival, so these are modelled estimates rather than counted cases, and they can be revised.
Sources checked 2026-11-07.
How it shows
A lump or a thickened area in the breast or the armpit. A change in the size or shape of one breast. Skin that dimples, puckers or looks like orange peel. A nipple that has newly turned inward, or that leaks fluid, especially blood. A rash or a sore on the nipple that does not heal.
What to do
Look and feel, with a flat hand, at the same point in your cycle each month - just after a period is easiest, because breasts are least lumpy then. You are not looking for cancer; you are learning what normal is for you. If you find something new that has not gone after one monthly cycle, have it examined. A clinician feels it and arranges a scan if one is needed - an ultrasound in younger women, a mammogram, which is a breast X-ray, from around the age of forty.
Nothing bought at a counter treats a breast lump, and the herbal preparations sold for them cost time, which is the one thing that matters here. A scan tells you what it is; a specialist decides what happens next. Ultrasound is widely available and much cheaper than a mammogram, and in a younger woman it is often the better first scan anyway.
Awareness rather than a monthly ritual
Breast awareness means knowing how your own breasts normally look and feel, so that a change registers as a change. Look and feel with a flat hand, at the same point in your cycle each month - just after a period, when breasts are least lumpy. You are not hunting for a cancer; you are learning your own normal.
What is worth acting on: a lump or thickening that is new and has not gone after one monthly cycle, a change in the size or shape of one breast, skin that dimples or looks like orange peel, a nipple that has newly turned inward or leaks fluid, or a sore on the nipple that does not heal.
Why early matters more here than almost anywhere
WHO's figures show the pattern plainly. In the countries with the very highest human development index, about one woman in twelve is diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime and about one in seventy-one dies of it. Where the index is low, about one in twenty-seven is diagnosed and about one in forty-eight dies.
Fewer women diagnosed, and more of them dying, is not a difference in the disease. It is a difference in how late it is found and how reliably it is treated. The part a woman can influence is the first half of that, and the months spent on something bought from a stall for a lump are the months that matter most.
What a scan does, and which one
A conversation cannot tell what a lump is and neither can an examination on its own. A scan can. An ultrasound is widely available, costs a fraction of a mammogram, and is generally the better first scan in a younger woman because her breast tissue is denser.
A mammogram, which is a breast X-ray, is the better scan from around forty, and it is available in the main cities rather than everywhere. Ask about it rather than travelling on the assumption that a hospital with an imaging department has the machine.
Sources
- Breast cancer · World Health Organization · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
Statistics and population data
2024 estimates. Sources checked 2026-11-07; this is separate from clinical review.