Breast cancer represents one of the most common cancers among women in the United States. Data indicates that more than 180,000 American women received a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2009. The various risk factors include: the female gender, heredity, genetic factors, aging and idiopathic causes.
What You Should Know About Breast Cancer
The short answer to what you should know about breast cancer is that it’s a malignant tumor in the breast tissue. With non-invasive breast cancer, the tumor stays localized and does not spread (metastasize) from its origin of growth. Experts refer to this as “Carcinoma in Situ”. The tumor occurs in and remains confined to the ducts (ductal carcinoma in situ) or confined to the lobules (lobular carcinoma in situ).
“Duct” and “Lobules” refer to the milk duct and the milk producing glands, respectively, in the mammary glands. Most breast cancers start in the ducts and spread to other tissues. Lobular carcinoma doesn’t meet the criteria of a true cancer by itself, but is a marker for many other types of cancer – both invasive and non-invasive.
An invasive tumor spreads beyond its area of origin and can have three different stages of invasiveness – localized, regional and distant stages. As the names suggest localized types include those which remain localized to the breast tissues, the regional stage refers to the spread of the tumor to the tissues surrounding the breast (e.g. – lymph nodes) and the distant tumors are those that spread away from the breast to other tissues and organs. Needless to mention, patients with distant tumors are not easily managed.
About Breast Cancer Stages
Doctors base breast cancer stages on the tumor size, nodal status (involvement of lymph nodes) and degree of spread (metastasis) tumors are grouped into 5 stages – 0 to IV. Stage zero means the carcinoma cells confined to the duct or lobule and has not spread elsewhere. This is the foremost stage of breast cancer.
In stage I the tumor is very small – less than or equal to 2 cm in diameter and is confined to an area in the breast, not spread to the lymph nodes or surrounding tissues. In stage II, the tumor grows to 1-2 inches in diameter and cancer cells appear at the lymph nodes. Sometimes the tumor is even bigger than 5cms, but the lymph nodes remain unaffected. In stage III, the tumor grows more than 5 cm and spreads to the lymph nodes and sometimes even to multiple lymph nodes, skin and chest wall. Stage IV is the last one and in this case the cancer spreads to somewhere else in the body.
Diagnostic Tests for Breast Cancer
A biopsy of the tumor determines the type of cancer. This enables the doctors to freeze on the treatment methods and also to figure out how quickly the cancer might grow. The hormone receptor status and HER2 status of the patient is also of prime importance to the doctors, because female hormones estrogen and progesterone play a vital role in the development of some cancer types. “ER+” and “PR+” are, respectively, estrogen receptor positive and progesterone receptor positive tumors. Hormonal therapy has been found to be beneficial in patients with such tumors. HER2 status also influences the mode of treatment.
Therapy and Treatment of Breast Cancer
The most widely used breast cancer treatment methods include mastectomy and lumpectomy procedures. The former refers to the removal of the entire affected breast through surgery and the latter refers to the removal of only the tumor and some surrounding tissues believed to contain the roots of the tumor.
As is the case with most cancer types, the cancer cells in breast cancer are too tiny for detection and doctors cannot rule out the chances that some cells will remain in the body, even after a successful surgery. The leftover cells can cause recurrence. To rule out recurrence adjuvant therapies are advised.
Such therapies include:
- Hormonal therapy
- Targeted biological therapy
In chemotherapy, the oncology health care team will administer a chemical to the patient (usually intravenously, but sometimes orally) to disrupt communication and growth of the cancerous cells. Hormonal therapy involves dosing the patient with a drug that works to bring down the estrogen levels or reduce its action.
Experts believe estrogen promotes growth in some tumors. In targeted biological therapy, doctors inject the body with monoclonal antibodies trained to recognize and destroy certain proteins and cells (the cancerous cells) through phagocytosis (mechanism of destruction through immune system).
How to Cope with Breast Cancer
It’s important that breast cancer patients get rid of the fear and traumas associated with the diagnosis and actually try to understand the disease. This will help them manage it more effectively:
- Share your feelings with the near and dear ones.
- Joining a support group helps get rid of the so called “blues”.
- Indulge in activities of interest like books, music, movies etc.
- Eat healthy, think healthy.
- Take rest.
Talk to your doctor about changes in symptoms etc. and discuss ways to manage them in the best possible manner.
About the Author: Jessica Palin works as a health writer and blogger for Robertgrantmd, (New York plastic surgery). She researches and writes about a variety of women’s health topics from breast cancer and weight loss to pregnancy tips. Her special interest involves exploring the new trends in beauty and plastic surgery treatments for both men and women.
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