Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and the second leading cause of cancer death, exceeded only by lung cancer in 1985. One woman in eight who lives to age 85 will develop breast cancer at some time during her life.
There are some risk factors that are associated with an increased risk, but there is not a clear cause and effect relationship. In no way can strong recommendations be made like the cause and effect relationship seen with tobacco and lung cancer. There are a few risk factors that may be modified by a woman that potentially could influence the development of breast cancer.
The exact causes for breast cancer are not known. Often doctors cannot explain why one woman may develop breast cancer but another does not. What is known is that bruising, bumping or touching the breast does not cause cancer. Breast cancer is not contagious. It is not "caught" from others.
Another helpful piece of information is that some types of cancers, like the Inflammatory breast cancer and Pagent's disease show classic symptoms of their own type. Very red and hard breasts which keep getting sore show along with the regular breast cancer symptoms are a classic case of the Inflammatory breast cancer, whereas very itchy, red, scaly rashes, easily confused for eczema, on the breasts along with other breast cancer symptoms are Pagent's disease.
The general breast cancer treatments include chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Surgical removal of cancerous tissues is also done to effectively remove breast lumps. Surgery may be in form of removal of breast lumps (lumpectomy) or removal of the entire breast and nearby structures (mastectomy). Radiation therapy is the use of high energy x-rays to destroy cancerous tissues.
Here are some signs that a woman may have breast cancer.
1. A painless lump growing in the breast area or armpit.
2. Unusual change in size and shape of the breast.
3. The nipple may produce a pus-like or clear discharge.
4. The color and texture of the skin, particularly the areola.
Several drugs are now available to treat or prevent breast cancer. Chemopreventive agents such as Tamoxifen and Raloxifene act to prevent the development of breast cancer by interrupting the process of initiation and promotion of tumors. The antiestrogenic effect of these agents appears also to lead to growth inhibition of malignant cells. Chemoprevention is the most promising intervention for achieving primary prevention at this time.
There is no known cure for breast cancer. More than 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year worldwide. Scientists don't know why most women get breast cancer, yet breast cancer is the most frequent tumor found in women the world over. A woman who dies of breast cancer is robbed of an average of nearly 20 years of her life. Breast cancer knows no social boundaries. It’s a disease that can affect anyone.
The most common type of breast cancer is ductal carcinoma, which begins in the cells of the ducts. Cancer that begins in the lobes or lobules is called lobular carcinoma and is more often found in both breasts than are other types of breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer is an uncommon type of breast cancer in which the breast is warm, red, and swollen. Recurrent breast cancer that has come back after it has been treated.
Breast cancer treatments can be systemic or local. Radiation therapy and Surgery are the local breast cancer treatments. Local breast cancer treatments are used to destroy, remove, or control the growth of cancer cells. Hormonal therapy and Chemotherapy are systemic treatments. Systemic treatments are targeted to control or destroy cancer cells all over the body. Different forms of breast cancer treatment can be prescribed at the same time or one after other.
Causes of Breast Cancer
Simply being a woman is the main risk for breast cancer. While men can also get the disease, it is about 100 times more common in women than in men. The chance of getting breast cancer goes up as a woman gets older. Nearly 8 out of 10 breast cancers are found in women age 50 or older. About 5% to 10% of breast cancers are linked to changes (mutations) in certain genes. The most common gene changes are those of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Breast cancer risk is higher among women whose close blood relatives have this disease.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month,* sadly, has become a time of increasing awareness not of the preventable causes of breast cancer, but of the breast cancer industry's insatiable need to both raise money for research into a pharmaceutical cure, and to promote its primary means of "prevention": early detection via x-ray mammography.
Cancer of the breast occurs when certain cells within breast tissue divide in a manner which allows uncontrolled growth and destruction of surrounding tissue; the cancer cell can then spread to lymph glands and other organs where they grow in the same destructive way. This growth is not the normal growth that is necessary to the function of the body part it is growing in, in this case, breast tissue.
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