General information on breast cancer
Breast cancer is a major health problem for women. For over 3,600 years, the cancer affects women's lives immeasurably. According to the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the awareness of breast cancer is well established in Egypt since 1600 BC, making it the oldest cancer known to man. "There is no cure," this is what the earlyEgyptian doctors wrote about breast cancer, according to the papyrus, and for centuries has been the attitude of the health of both doctors and patients.
But while the Egyptians regarded the disease is incurable, advances in medicine that we now have survival rates close to an absolute certainty at an early stage. All we need is a sound knowledge of the signs of cancer and determination to go through the treatment process.
What the causes of breast cancer?
About one in eight women will be diagnosed with this cancer in a lifetime. There are several risk factors that are part of our lives that we can not change. This includes family history of aging, genetics and the menstrual cycle.
The risk of cancer will increase even as a person ages. Cycle of advanced cancer are generally observed in women fifty years of age. About thirty percent of women> The breast cancer have a family history of breast, ovarian, uterine or ovarian cancer.
Some people have genetic defects that make them more susceptible to acquiring the disease. This includes defects often found in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Women with these gene defects have eighty per cent chance of getting breast cancer. Those who began menstruating before the age of twelve or went through menopause after the age of fifty yearshigher risk of breast cancer.
Women who have never had children or have given birth after the age of thirty are at increased risk of breast cancer.
Other risk factors include alcohol consumption, obesity, hormone replacement therapy for menopause, use of the drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) to prevent a miscarriage, and radiation.
Strangely, there is no evidence that the use of breast implants, antiperspirants, pesticides andBracket bras to raise the risk of cancer.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
Upon examination of the breast regularly is important to detect cancer, because in the early stages of breast cancer may show no symptoms. If a woman develops cancer, or a combination of the following.
A hard painless lump in the breast or armpit with irregular edges.
Clearchange of size, shape, feel and texture of the breast and nipple.
unusual as liquid pus from the nipple.
For women who are at an advanced stage of breast cancer, the symptoms are bone pain, pain and discomfort in the chest, the wounds of the skin of the breast or underarm, weight loss and swelling of the arm.
How to prevent breast cancer?
Because some risk factors are uncontrollable, consciousness is theimportant step in the fight against the disease. In general, a healthy diet and lifestyle of a person reduces the risk of cancer. Early diagnosis of cancer increases the cure rate and therefore self-breast examination (BSE), clinical breast examination and mammography are highly recommended.
BSE experts recommend a once a month to more than twenty women. The test must be conducted one week after their menstrual cycle. For those aged between twentynine, clinical research must be done every three years.
Women over the age of forty are usually advised to undergo a full year to breast examination and mammography once. Breast MRI should be done for women who have a higher risk factors for breast cancer.
Certain drugs such as tamoxifen, have been approved by USDA to prevent cancer in women thirty-five years or more. Preventive mastectomy or prophylactic surgeryremoval of the breast, is recommended for those who already have breast removed and those risks identified to have genetic mutations that increase tumor.
What exams and tests involved in breast cancer?
The doctor will gather information from your symptoms and risk factors. A thorough physical examination, chest below the neck, armpits, chest, and would then be conducted to verifygrowth of the tumor as possible.
For further testing to confirm the diagnosis can be performed, this includes mammography, MRI, CT and PET breast, in order to identify the size, shape and position of the breast. Sonography of the breast is also made to determine whether the lump is solid or filled with fluid. Needle aspiration and sentinel lymph node biopsy for further research in the laboratory of a lump in the breast and adjacent lymph nodes.
How can we classify breast cancer?
After the positive diagnosis of breast cancer, other tests to be done for cancer control the size of the file. This is called staging of breast cancer. This helps physicians to identify treatment methods are needed and the patient's prognosis.
Cycle of breast cancer range from zero to four. If the cancer has not spread is called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). L '> The cancer can be non-invasive or invasive according to the progression of cancer.
A combination of treatments is often welcomed by women and this is different on the stage of cancer. In the first phase, aims to remove the tumor and preventing its spread to other tissues and organs of the body. For women with stage four breast cancer, treatment is aimed at extending the lives of cancer patients and the fourth phase can not betreatment.
How is cancer treated?
Cancer treatment depends on the type and stage of cancer and the sensitivity of certain hormones. The cancer also applies to the overproduction of the HER2 gene.
General treatments for breast cancer are chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Surgical removal of cancer cellstissue was also done to effectively remove breast lumps. surgery may be in the form of removal of lumps in the breast (lumpectomy) or removal of the entire breast and surrounding structures (mastectomy). Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy X-rays to destroy tumor tissue.
Treatments such as hormone therapy and targeted therapy can be done to prevent metastasis and, if necessary, stir a bit 'of hormones to stop cancer growth. Some examples ofhormonal therapies include drugs such as tamoxifen and exemestane used to block the effects of estrogen and reduce the development of cancer. Drugs such as trastuzumab Herceptin can be used as a form of targeted therapy in women with fourth-stage HER2-positive breast cancer .
What to expect after treatment?
There are a number of medical advances allowing for patients live longer, more active lives after cancer.Yet we can not help but stress the importance of early diagnosis. American Cancer Society's study of five-year survival for stage of cancer is a zero and a maximum of one hundred percent and this is reduced to less than twenty percent for stage four. A visit with the doctor and learn more about breast cancer and self-analysis of studies.
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