Breast cancer is classified in numerous ways. Like most cancers, breast cancer can be divided into groups based on the tissue of origin, e.g. epithelial (carcinoma) versus stromal (sarcoma). The vast majority of breast cancers arise from epithelial tissue, i.e. they are carcinomas.

Early breast cancer can in some cases present as breast pain (mastodynia) or a painful lump. Since the advent of breast mammography, breast cancer is most frequently discovered as an asymptomatic nodule on a mammogram, before any symptoms are present. A lump under the arm or above the collarbone that does not go away may be present.

Most breast symptoms do not turn out to represent underlying breast cancer. Benign breast diseases such as fibrocystic mastopathy, mastitis, functional mastodynia, and fibroadenoma of the breast are more common causes of breast symptoms.

Breast cancer screening is an attempt to find unsuspected cancers. The most common screening methods are self and clinical breast exams, x-ray mammography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the breast, ultrasound, and genetic testing.

The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized, with possible adjuvant hormonal therapy.

 Depending on clinical criteria (age, type of cancer, size, metastasis) patients are roughly divided to high risk and low risk cases, with each risk category following different rules for therapy. Treatment possibilities include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and immune therapy.

Prophylactic oophorectomy (removal of ovaries), in high-risk individuals, when child-bearing is complete, reduces the risk of developing breast cancer by 60%, as well as reducing the risk of developing ovarian cancer by 96%.

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