'Don't wait to check for breast cancer'

About a third of Hong Kong women with breast cancer symptoms wait more than three months before seeing a doctor, increasing their risk of larger tumours, mastectomy and death.

This was the warning from the city's Breast Cancer Foundation after it analysed data from 2,242 patients who had completed treatment for the cancer.

"We found that the tumour size is bigger, the number of nodes involved is higher and also the need for mastectomy is higher, and their chance of survival is compromised," foundation founder Dr Polly Cheung said yesterday, referring to patients who delayed diagnosis.

Breast cancer is the number one cancer among women in Hong Kong, accounting for 26 per cent of cancer cases. In 2011, it killed 552 women.

Occupation, marital status and a history of benign breast conditions were closely associated with patients delaying seeking medical attention, or "self-delay", the report showed.

Low-skilled workers are 50 per cent more likely than unemployed people to delay seeing a doctor if they notice breast cancer symptoms. Cheung said women should see a doctor within a month of finding a lump in their breast and not allow their busy lives or fear to cause delays.

"They will leave it until they ulcerate or bleed; they think these are the symptoms when you need to see a doctor, not a painless lump," she said.