3-year-old Yan Yan may surprisingly be the world’s youngest breast cancer survivor, as per a report in Daily Mail.
Yan Yan (nickname), who is from Shandong, east China was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer (secretory breast carcinoma) when her mother discovered a lump on the left side on her chest.
Earlier, her mother had noticed red, sticky stains on the girl’s t-shirts which persisted for a few days until she discovered the lump.
When the girl was taken to the hospital initially, the doctors asked her mother to stop giving her the dietary supplements. They said that Yan Yan was exhibiting signs of ‘early sexual maturation’.
But the fact that the mother was not giving any dietary supplements to her daughter troubled her and she took her to Jiangsu People's Hospital.
The doctors found a small mass in the left side of the girl’s breast and a swollen lymph node in her armpit. The doctors conducted a biopsy which confirmed their worst fears. Yan Yan was suffering from secretory breast carcinoma, a rare type of cancer.
The doctors decided to perform the surgery after discussing the matter with experts from Harvard Medical School as to how would it affect the child’s growth and development.
Breast cancer specialist Tang Jin Hai removed the tumour without causing any harm to the girl’s mammary glands.
Yan Yan was discharged from the hospital on 3 December post a successful surgery.
Nearly a lakh women die of breast cancer every year in India. That’s the highest in any Asian country, twice as much as the US, which has an incredibly high incidence of breast cancer.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)