The doctor will ask you about your risk factors and symptoms and then will perform a physical exam, which includes both breasts, armpits and neck area and chest. Additional tests may include:

• Mammography to help identify the breast lump.
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast to help better identify the breast lump.
• Breast ultrasound to show whether the lump is solid or fluid filled.
• Breast biopsy, aspiration or biopsy of the breast lump removal to remove all or part of the breast
• lump for further analysis by a specialist laboratory.
• CT
• Sentinel lymph node biopsy
• Positron emission tomography (PET)

If your doctor learns that you do have breast cancer, additional tests will be done to see if the cancer has spread. This is called staging and helps guide future treatment and monitoring and gives you an idea of what to expect in the future. The breast cancer stages range from 0 to IV. Breast cancer has not spread is called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS, by its initials in English) or noninvasive breast cancer. If it spreads, it is called invasive breast cancer. The higher the number the more advanced the cancer.