Breast Cancer Information: Be Careful Ladies!

Breast cancer is the worst dream for every woman. Even though it also occurs in men, the occurrence in women is far higher. It is caused by abnormal cells that grow out of control and affects the tissue of the breast. As a heterogeneous disease, cancer shows different condition on individual, gender, age group and even the cells inside the cancer itself. It is obvious that diagnosed as people with cancer can change one’s whole life. However, breast cancer is not necessarily means they will soon dead. With recent technology on the medication, thousands of women are surviving from it.  Each year, more than two hundred thousand women are diagnosed and more than 40,000 die from it. There are some types of breast cancer as well as the causes of breast cancer and breast cancer treatment. Basically, there are two types of cancer, invasive and non-invasive. Invasive or infiltrating cancer can spread to the surrounding tissues of the cancer and even to lymph nodes. In other hand, non-invasive cancer remains on their origin place and don’t spread to other part.  Usually, invasive breast cancer is in stage I, II, II and IV while noninvasive one is in stage 0.

Breast Cancer Facts and Early Detections

As mentioned before, breast cancer can occur in both women and men. However the occurrence in women is bigger than men. About one of eight women is suffering from it. Moreover, 70% of woman with cancer are above 50 years old. Other breast cancer facts are about the risk and the early detections. Early detection of breast cancer can be done by doing mammogram or other imaging test like ultrasound and MRI. However, only biopsy (the smear of the tissue to look for cancer) can tell for sure if one has cancer or not. Early detections can make better treatments and actions taken by the doctor. The sooner a cancer is detected, the bigger chance to survive from it. Since it doesn’t give any sign when they are on early stage, the condition of the cancer is often already bad when they are found. Thus make almost 40 percents of it doesn’t survive for their first five years. Indeed early detections are very defining for the survival from the breast cancer. 

Treatments of Breast Cancer

Some people are more risky than other when it comes to any type of cancer. No one knows the certain cause of breast cancer, yet some are more likely to have it than others. It is important to note that the risk of it is higher as one gets older. Having abnormal breast cells like lobular carcinoma, atypical hyperplasia and ductal carcinoma in it can raise the risk of invasive breast cancer. Family health history and mutation are other factors that make the occurrence of it higher. Women whose family have had cancer are more likely to have it compared others who don’t. Moreover, people who had radiation therapy in chest, too early when get first menstruation and late menopause are also more risky than others. Since the symptoms of early breast cancer are not obvious, it only appears when reaching invasive cancer stage. The symptoms include thickening breast or in the surrounding area, the change of shape or size of the breast, wrinkle in the skin of the breast, inward breast nipple and discharge of blood and other fluid from the nipple. In many case, the breast, nipple or are surrounded the cancer turn red, scaly, swollen or pitting like the skin of orange.

Basically, the treatments of breast cancer are decided by the stage of the cancer and the conditions of the patients. People with stage 0 or noninvasive cancer will have breast-sparing surgery and radiation therapy. They may also choose total mastectomy over those treatments. People with stage 0 cancer usually receive medications like tamoxifen to control the cells where the cancer occurred. In other side, invasive stages of cancer may have different combinations of treatments based on the size of cancer and the area where it is spread. Some people may choose breast-sparing surgery combined with radiation or mastectomy. The removal of lymph nodes is also possible to be taken for them who are in stage II or IIIA. To control up the breast cancer, some people receive chemotherapy before the surgery. After done the surgery, they will have adjutant therapy. This is intended to decrease the risk of returning cancer. Aside from the cancer treatments, they may also have other medication to reduce the pain and other side effects of it. We all know that cancer is very dangerous disease. Early detections and healthy life style will help many people to reduce the occurrence of breast cancer and to control up the cancer that already appear. 

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