Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer

For women, breast cancer is the leading cancer with lung cancer as the second. While it is mostly present for women, men can be affected too, but it is rare case. Breast cancer accounts for about 15% of all female cancers and about 20% of invasive cancers in women. Most females that are affected by this cancer are mostly within the range of 40-60+ year old women. Deaths stemming from breast cancer are about 20% in the world.

 As of today, the most common type of breast cancer is Ductal Carcinoma. This type of cancer usually starts in the duct cells in the breast. A type of cancer called adenocarcinoma, the cancer starts in glandular tissue. The other tumors that take place in the breast, like sarcomas, start in the cells of muscle, fat, or connective tissue.

The first indications of breast cancer are frequently an area of condensed tissue on the breast or a lump; though most lumps are not cancerous, it is better to have it checked by a medical professional. Other symptoms of breast cancer can include: a rash around or on the nipples, a lump in one of the armpits, and/or any skin that is part of the breast starts to peel.

To have a positive reading on whether or not one has breast cancer, it is best to be diagnosed during a physical exam, mammography, ultrasound, and biopsy. If a person does have breast cancer, the next step they should take is to find out what stage the cancer is in. Breast cancer stages range from 0 to 4. 0 shows that the tumor is noninvasive and a stage 4 cancer shows that the disease has already spread to other areas of the body.

So far, the best treatment to breast cancer is surgery followed by either chemotherapy or radiation. There are many types of surgeries but the top two are either lumpectomy or mastectomy. Lumpectomy is the process of taking out just the breast cancer and is reserved for smaller tumors. Mastectomy is the surgery to remove almost all of the breast tissue. Following the surgery, there are many other options to go from and many women choose wither radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Radiation therapy uses x-rays to kill the cancer cells or it can be also done by inserting some radioactive materials inside the body. This is mostly used after taking a mastectomy for cancers which have already spread to many parts of the body. Chemotherapy uses drugs or medicine to kill the cancer cells. This type of treatment can also reduce the chance that the cancer will happen again. The goal of chemotherapy is to make the tumor smaller in order to perform a more successful surgery to remove the tumor from the body.