Care pathway for a breast cancer patient
Keywords:Welcome to the care pathway for a breast cancer patient. On this website, we explain to you step by step how your examinations and treatment will proceed.

If breast cancer is confirmed or strongly suspected in examinations performed in basic health care or by a private physician, you will be given a referral to our Breast Surgery Unit.
If you have a lump or some other symptom suggesting breast cancer, mammography should be performed urgently, along with ultrasound examination of the breasts and armpits. A core needle biopsy is taken under local anesthesia of any suspicious mammography or ultrasound findings. If suspect lymph nodes are found in the armpit, a needle biopsy must be taken of those as well. These examinations may be performed at a health center, in occupational health care or at a private medical center.
If core needle biopsy results confirm the suspicion of breast cancer, you will be referred to the Helsinki University Hospital Breast Surgery Unit by the health center, occupational health care physician, or private physician.
If your symptoms suggest breast cancer, or if there are suspicious mammogram or ultrasound findings, you will be referred to the Breast Surgery Unit for diagnosis confirmation even if no cancer is found in the biopsies.
Units
Comprehensive Cancer Center's Outpatient Unit and Medical Treatment Unit
Doctors’ and nurses’ appointments take place in the outpatient clinics in Comprehensive Cancer Center, and drug therapy for cancer is administered in the…