Siemens Healthineers knows that breast cancer prevention is critical, and believes it’s important that patients find their own individual path in cancer treatment.

In line the company's commitments to pioneering breakthroughs in healthcare, for everyone, everywhere, and fighting breast cancer, Siemens Healthineers colleagues supported fundraising runs in aid of Breast Cancer Awareness Month - helping raise awareness and providedsupport for this important and crucial cause.

"Thank you to our colleagues who went running for a good cause: Breast Cancer Awareness Month," said Siemens Healthineers.

A breast cancer patient is rarely fighting alone

In 2020, there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 685,000 deaths globally. By the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous five years, according to World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. This makes breast cancer the world’s most prevalent cancer.

Siemens Healthineers Linda Gallant found two lumps after a self-exam in 2020 only around a few months after one of the regular check-ups. Linda has been in healthcare all of her professional life and took her cancer on like a personal project. Naming the tumors (Midge and Beth) helped Linda to address her emotions directly to them, and helped her deal with the emotional rollercoaster that comes with a cancer diagnosis.

Importance of early detection

As is the case with many types of cancer, there is little that can be done to avoid the occurrence of breast cancer. But whether due to fear of the result, reservations about what the unfamiliar examination might feel like, or simply due to procrastination, many women don’t make use of the early detection screenings available. This is problematic because time is the most important factor when it comes to early detection.

On average, one in eight women develop breast cancer over the course of their lives. The rule of thumb is that the sooner the disease is detected, the lower the number and intensity of procedures, the better the chances of recovery and the sooner the patient will be able to return to a normal life.

How patients can improve their chances

Early detection remains the most important factor to improve the prognosis after a cancer diagnosis. By investing a short amount of time for a quick exam, patients can increase the likelihood of continuing life as usual.

Routine self-examinations can be a crucial factor in early diagnosis, and they can be undertaken by:

• looking at breasts in the mirror with arms by sides and then with arms raised. Looking for any skin changes such as dimpling, puckering, redness, changes in nipples, or any discharge from them
• feeling breasts while lying down: using the opposite hand to examine each breast with two fingertip pads, using small circular motions and covering the entire area of the breast (from outer arm pits to the nipples, across the space in between breasts, and vertically from collarbone to below the breasts)
• feeling breasts while standing up: this is easiest done in the shower especially with a little soap over the area that makes fingers slide over the tissue and lumps easier to feel

Time is the most important factor

If breast cancer is diagnosed early on, the five-year survival rate is well above 90 per cent in industrial countries.

Siemens Healthineers believes that the COVID-19 pandemic should not stop anyone from getting checked. The procedures continue to be available and can be carried out, also when strict infection prevention measures are in place. The virus should not stop anyone from getting checked, as breast cancer is not going to wait for life to return to normal.

Multidisciplinary approach to individual treatment

Optimal outcomes for breast cancer depend on a timely diagnosis followed by an organized, multidisciplinary approach to individual treatment. Following the first pioneers on the field of breast cancer, Siemens Healthineers has remained committed to fighting this disease.

Beginning with its first mammography system in 1972, further key developments such as tomosynthesis but also breast MRI and dedicated ultrasound solutions have helped Siemens Healthineers to offer ways to find cancer earlier and move toward personalized care.

Commitments to precise and efficient care

With the goal of supporting clinical decision-making throughout the entire care pathway, Siemens Healthineers has a portfolio that includes imaging technology to attain the highest level of accuracy for screening, but also for diagnostics, disease characterization, and treatment. Emerging digital technologies complement and enhance these offerings, empowering decisions and making care more precise and efficient.

Examination and treatments are becoming more gentle as technology advances. Examples of this include patient-oriented development of the contact surfaces, imaging diagnostics becoming ever more refined, as well as targeted, minimally invasive procedures.

Mammography is the most efficient method for making breast examinations more comfortable, while enabling more personalized care with improved diagnostic accuracy, and even more effective than palpation and ultrasound. The German Cancer Society (Brustkrebs Deutschland e.V.) assumes that the average size of a lump detected by mammography is 0.5 cm, while the average size of a lump that women can detect through regular self-examination is 2 cm.

As part of every preventive medical check-up, substantial data is generated that has to be analyzed promptly. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers smart support for the experts and enhances breast cancer screenings.

Oncology-focused solutions and patient-focused care

Varian and Siemens Healthineers are dedicated to connecting all care aspects to achieve a world without fear of cancer. Intelligent Cancer Care™ stands for integrated, connected care pathways designed to drive efficiencies and deliver world-class treatment along the cancer continuum to increase impact where it matters most: patients.

Therapy will continue to evolve

The Breast Center Südbaden in Freiburg, southwest Germany, doesn’t just offer breast cancer patients state-of-the-art diagnostics and therapy with high-tech equipment from Siemens Healthineers. It also accompanies women with breast cancer from discovery to recovery through special services.

Siemens Healthineers is committed to women's health

Siemens Healthineers is a team of 66,000 highly dedicated employees pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in healthcare to help improve people’s lives around the world.

Join one of the largest employers in the medtech industry, and become part of Siemens Healthineers.

Search the career opportunities with this prime employer for women.

Search jobs