Download Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer
What is cancer? Cancer is any kind of disease
that grows or a kind of tumor. The cancer is
caused by abnormal and uncontrollable cell;
this may spread to other parts of the body
through the "lymphatic system" or the blood
stream. Cancer is not only considered to be
one disease but this is a process that is shared with more than two hundred different kinds of
diseases. There are many different types of cancers such as breast cancer which is a multifaceted
disease that has many causes and has a collection of interactions that are between the causes.
Breast cancer is very common in the United States, there are over 212,000 cases of breast cancer
within the United States each year [ Bender, David L ]. United States is the second country in the
world that has the highest breast cancer incident rate of 91.4 per 100,000 women. Statistics show
that there have been 40,970 deaths in women and 460 deaths in men in the year 2005
[www.cancer.org.].
Breast cancer is generally about one hundred times more common for a female to get
breast cancer rather than men but there is about one percent of men who have been diagnosis.
More than eighty percent of these cases occur in women over the age of fifty. White women are
more likely to get breast cancer rather than African-American but if African American women do
have cancer they have a stronger chance of dying from it because they have much faster growing
tumors. Women that do not have children have a higher risk of being diagnosis rather than those
who have children before the age of thirty. If one or more of the relatives in a family have breast
cancer, this increases the risk of catching the disease. Especially someone with a close relative
such as a mother or sister have breast cancer that has doubled the chance as well. "Most of these
families carry faulty versions of the ‘BRCA’ breast cancer genes. Women with a faulty BRCA gene
have a fifty percent to eighty percent chance of getting breast cancer."[www.cancer.org]. There are
two main places where the cancer begins in breast: Lobules which the milk produces the tissues,
Ducts which carries the milk to the nipple. The four different types of breast cancer are the Ductal
carcinoma in situ, Invasive ductal carcinoma, Lobular carcinoma in situ and Invasive lobular
carcinoma. The ductal carcinoma in situ means that there is an early cancer in the milk ducts which
are detected by mammograms and it are easy to cure. The invasive ductal carcinoma means that
the cancer has begun to spread further than the milk ducts. Lobular carcinoma in situ is means that
the woman is not going to get breast cancer but have increased the chance to get it. The invasive
lobular carcinoma means that it started in the lobules and now spread, this is hard to diagnose
because it does not come up as a lump or show during a mammogram.
The common symptoms for breast cancer for many women are lumps in the breast. Most
breast lumps can be seen in specialist breast clinics nine out of ten are benign which means that
there not cancers. Most benign breast lumps are in areas of benign breast change. Lumpiness is
more obvious just before a period, which occurs in women over 35. Many other signs are thicken of
the lump, a change of size or shape of a breast, dimpling of the skin, a change in the shape of your
nipple, blood-stained discharge from the nipple, A rash on a nipple or surrounding area and/ or a
swelling or lump in your armpit. Mammogram can detect the cancer tumor at an early stage. Those
cancers that are detected by screening are at an early stage and easily cured. The most common
way of diagnosis is by taking a biopsy which is a sample tissue. This is done by a hollow needle is
pushed into the breast lump to catch tiny samples of the tissue. The results of the shape and
appearance of the cells reveal if the lump is benign or if it is cancerous.
The main treatment for breast cancer is surgery. In many cases, conservative surgery is
used; this changes the shape and appearance of the breast. For those diagnosed with early stage
of breast cancer, only the lump and a small area of tissue around it are removed. For those with
later stage breast cancer, have much more of the tissue removed but it is replaced with muscle to
rebuild the breast. Since breast cancer cells usually spread first to the lymph node in the armpit,
the surgeon will usually cut into it to check for any spread. The surgery is followed by a small
course of radiotherapy or chemotherapy, which depends on the type of tumor you had and how
advanced it was. Many cases have the patient take longer courses for hormone therapy such as
tamoxifen which reduces the risk of the cancer to occur again. The treatment for breast cancer has
been improving for the last twenty years. In the early 1970's, only half of all women diagnosed with
the disease survived for five years. Now, over three quarters survive for that long and most of them
will live for very much longer.
In conclusion, we need to understand that breast cancer is a tumor that can be dangerous.
Men or women all are in risk and need to know and understand the symptoms and prevention of
breast cancer.
Bibliography
Kaur, Sat Dharam. "The Complete Natural Medicine Guide to Breast Cancer." Toronto Canada,
2003
Bender, David L. “Cancer” San Diego California, 2000
Yasher, Hirshat, Pressman, Peter I. “Breast Cancer The Complete Guide” New York New
York, September 2000
Weiss, Michael S. “www.cancereducation.com” 2006
American Cancer Society www.Cancer.org. 2006
HFC Programs www.HealthedCouncil.org 2002-2004