Breast Cancer - An Introduction To The Disease

When the normal cells start behaving abnormally like wise dividing and growing too fast, making extra tissue or mass. This formation of extra tissue or mass is called lump for breast cancer and generally a tumor.

There are two kinds of tumor or lump malignant and benign. Where benign is a non cancerous cells, malignant is extremely dangerous and threat to life because malignant is cancerous tumor or lump.

Presence of malignant in breast is breast cancer. Now a day’s breast cancer is very common in women of North America and Europe. The chance of breast cancer rises at the age 40 to 50 or with women having a history of breast cancer with immediate family member.

Breast cancer starts from glandular tissue and is called as Adenocarcinoma. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) starts its development from milk duct. Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) is the most common type of breast cancer which starts from duct walls and invades breast tissue.

Invasive lobular carcinoma starts from the milk gland and invades 10 to 15 percent for breast cancers.

The less common types of breast cancer are as following:

• Inflammatory is a type in which the breast tissue is warm and appears red and this type tends to spread fast.
  Medullary carcinoma is a type which originates from the center of the breast.
• Mucinous carcinoma occurs mostly in the postmenopausal women.
• Paget’s it begins from milk duct and spreads to the skin nipples and areola.
• Phyllodes tumor is a leaf like shape that extends into the duct.
• Tubular carcinoma small tumor that is often undetectable by palpation.

Symptoms

In the early stage of breast cancer unfortunately there are no signs or symptoms.

When a tumor is present in a body it does give some symptoms and sign. Which are as follows.

• Lump or thickening in the breast or underarm
• Breast change its size or shape.
• Nipple discharge or nipple turning inward.
• Redness or scaling of the skin or nipple.
• If these symptoms are present it does’t means the patient is suffering from cancer it is necessary to examined by a doctor.

Diagnosis

If the patient has symptoms of breast cancer than the patients is recommended for some test. This includes a mammogram a set of x-rays its gives more clear close-ups on the effected area, ultrasounds is a method in which high frequency sound waves to outline the suspicious area in breast and biopsy is process which collects the fluid from the lump or tumor by the mean of injection or remove more tissue and then send to laboratory for confirm result whether the tissues cells are cancerous or not.

The pathologist then test cells for estrogen and progesterone. If these two substances are present in the cell then they can be treated with hormonal therapies.

Treatment

Depending on the patient’s condition and how far is the cancerous cells are spread. Combination of treatments are also been done according to the disease. There are four types of treatment required for this disease according to the disease which may vary or used in combination.

Surgery

This is the procedure in which to remove cancerous cells via surgery. In breast cancer the best option is to remove the breast from the body but this kind of procedure also varies from patient to patient because not all patients are candidates for the removal of whole breast. But women with breast cancer do have to go for surgery. The surgery is always needed to be combined with radiation therapy to kill the left over cancerous cells.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the treatment which is usually done after the surgery. The surgeon remove much of the cancer cell from the body but sometimes microscopic cancer cells are left in the body to completely destroy them the doctors suggest chemotherapy. In this treatment an anticancer drug is used to the patient’s entire body or through injection in the blood stream.

Chemotherapy can be given before or after surgery. Chemotherapy can be given in combination with other treatments. This treatment is given to stop the growth of cancer cell and to kill them.

Radiotherapy

In breast cancer usually patients have to through radiotherapy. Radiotherapy uses high energy rays to the effected area to kill the cancer cells. This treatment just takes few minutes and painless. And the patient just has to come 5 days a week for 6 weeks for the therapy. A radiation reduces the risk of recurrence and prolongs the life of the patient.

Hormonal Therapy

This is a therapy in which the pathologist examines your tumor specimen and if the patient’s tumor is expressing estrogen and progesterone they are candidate for hormonal therapy. A pill is given to the patient for 5years after the surgery. This medicine is only suggested to patients who are already gone through menopause.

Biological Therapy

Even after surgery tumor can recur. To prevent the cancer cell reoccurrence a compound called Herceptin is given to the patient to stop breast cancer from growing. This therapy prolong the life of the patient.