Breast Cancer research and treatment

your risk of breast cancer is high, especially when you're over 40

2011-12-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

If a piece of hard felt in the breasts, skin, sunken areas, wrinkles, early breast discharge ... your risk of breast cancer is high, especially when you're over 40.

Small quiz below will help you from Sheknows breast self-examination and know when to go see a specialist to determine their condition.

1. When a monthly breast self-examination, you feel:

a. No significant changes
b. There is a small department in a breast
c. A very large breast changes in size and shape

2. When checking your nipples, you see:

a. Nothing other than tests last month
b. It's a bit sore but it was weeks before you "were"
c. There is pus discharge as

3. You recently experienced chest pain:

a. Starts after you set a series of new moves affect breast
b. In a position and does not seem to lose
c. Only with some pain but it's only feels a bit swollen on one side of the chest

4. You certainly do not have a hard mass may be palpable or a tumor in the chest:

a. And there is no noticeable change any more
b. Both of you are breast swelling
c. But you see a sunken, wrinkled skin and a nipple cracks

5. When looking at my chest, you see:

a. Nothing changes in skin color, firmness and condition as usual
b. Dry, rough spots on the chest
c. There are acne, exfoliative, itchy nipple on one side and discharge.

If your answer is mainly a: Chest you seem normal and you do not see any noticeable changes, indicating you are not breast cancer. This is a good result but you do not forget to continue monthly breast self-examination and should be tested periodically or take X-rays to detect tumors in the chest if you are 40 years or older.

If your answers are mainly b: changes noted as a small hard Department, chest pain or nipple discharge can be signs of breast cancer, but they also may be related to the hormonal changes in your body. For example, the nipple discharge may be due to the effects of hormonal changes, pregnancy and lactation. Chest pain can also be related to the tumor in your breast begin to grow but it is only when you are about to sign or red light on the effects of time "love" recently.

No matter the reason, you should be tested to determine the cause of the unusual symptoms and seek appropriate treatment if infected.

If you answer mostly c: unusual changes in your breasts are the warning signs you can get breast cancer. You should seek immediate advice to the doctors, do the necessary tests and if necessary, X-ray to check the accuracy of breast disease. If you have breast cancer, the treatment is simpler and more likely to succeed if at an early stage.

Signs of breast cancer

2010-09-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

Signs of breast cancer
Surpassed breast cancer cervical cancer, became the leading type of cancer in women. Most tumors occur in women aged 35-45, are rare under the age of 30.
After much research, scientists have discovered the main reason for increased risk are: family history of breast cancer; have some disturbance of the mammary gland, a mutation of a gene ; long-term impact of estrogen (women experience menopause before age 12 and after 55 years of age), hormonal drugs for a long time, no child or first child after age 30; not breastfeeding ; smoke and drink alcohol and eat more meat, fat, body fat location.
Most primary breast cancer patients are detected when they noticed a change in the mammary glands. The most common block is a hard lump or thick place on a no sore breasts.
In the early stages, patients often have no clear indications and painless for patients. When tumor progression, patients will notice the following symptoms: hard lump, no pain, no uniform, unknown shore, stick to the skin on the breast or chest, difficulty Mobile; breasts enlarged or changed change the shape of the breast, nipple or a sloppy rough, bleeding, breast skin thickening or change color, rough like orange peel ...
When you see any signs above, women should go immediately to a specialist oncology clinic. How much early as the ability to treat much more effectively. For patients with tumors of the breast cancer is suspected, the doctor examined to evaluate all lumps are benign or malignant, and to perform tests to distinguish a tumor that blocks liquid or block special (good or evil), a biopsy to evaluate the most accurate.
Once you have determined that the tumor is malignant, doctors will conduct special tests to know the nature of cancer, said cancer has invaded locally or to nearby tissues. Approximately 95% of all cases of breast cancer are invasive form.
Based on the level of development and invasive tumors, it is divided into three groups to apply appropriate treatments: Group 1: under 2cm tumor, there were no axillary lymph nodes and no distant metastases; group 2: tumors larger than 2cm, with or without axillary lymph nodes, no distant metastases; Group 3: local spread of cancer to eat a lot or far the cancer has metastasized.
With the advancement of medicine for the treatment outcomes: five-year cure rate as follows: a group of about 80-90%, two groups of about 40-75%, three groups of about 15%. However, to better treatment outcomes, after treatment, patients should periodically visit 2-3 times per year to physicians understand the disease progresses, if any sequelae and complications will be timely position.
Women should breast self-examination to detect early disease in the following way:
- Standing in front of the mirror in the ceiling, arms give up sides, and then change the position: two hands to the back, buttocks, slightly tilted to the front. Observe both breasts see any changes in size (a larger party than usual, or shrunk back), skin of breast (orange, skin concave down). Press on your nipples to see if blood or fluid in the nipple is not decent.
- Lie back, millet pillow or folded towel under right shoulder, right hand to the back, use the left finger (hand spreading straight) breasts gently pressed into the side, starting from the top, then to the lower breast, the nipple end, to find lumps (tumors, tumor mass). When the left breast, then reversed its position.
- Visit the armpit area for testing.
Business should always be consulted when it is clean, less breast tension, use your hands to spread with the finger straight to the slopes in the mammary pressure, turn out across both breasts, if that is true, the local rice is clearly Department of u.

Signs and symptoms

2010-09-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

Signs and symptoms

Breast cancer showing an inverted nipple, lump, skin dimpling

The first noticeable symptom of breast cancer is typically a lump that feels different from the rest of the breast tissue. More than 80% of breast cancer cases are discovered when the woman feels a lump.^[14] By the time a breast lump is noticeable, it has probably been growing for years. The earliest breast cancers are detected by a mammogram.^[15] Lumps found in lymph nodes located in the armpits^[14] can also indicate breast cancer.
Indications of breast cancer other than a lump may include changes in breast size or shape, skin dimpling, nipple inversion, or spontaneous single-nipple discharge. Pain ("mastodynia") is an unreliable tool in determining the presence or absence of breast cancer, but may be indicative of other breast health issues.^[14]^[15]^[16]
When breast cancer cells invade the dermal lymphatics—small lymph vessels in the skin of the breast—its presentation can resemble skin inflammation and thus is known as inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). Symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer include pain, swelling, warmth and redness throughout the breast, as well as an orange-peel texture to the skin referred to as peau d'orange.^[14]
Another reported symptom complex of breast cancer is Paget's disease of the breast. This syndrome presents as eczematoid skin changes such as redness and mild flaking of the nipple skin. As Paget's advances, symptoms may include tingling, itching, increased sensitivity, burning, and pain. There may also be discharge from the nipple. Approximately half of women diagnosed with Paget's also have a lump in the breast.^[17]
In rare cases, what initially appears as a fibroadenoma (hard movable lump) could in fact be a phyllodes tumor. Phyllodes tumors are formed within the stroma (connective tissue) of the breast and contain glandular as well as stromal tissue. Phyllodes tumors are not staged in the usual sense; they are classified on the basis of their appearance under the microscope as benign, borderline, or malignant.^[18]
Occasionally, breast cancer presents as metastatic disease, that is, cancer that has spread beyond the original organ. Metastatic breast cancer will cause symptoms that depend on the location of metastasis. Common sites of metastasis include bone, liver, lung and brain.^[19] Unexplained weight loss can occasionally herald an occult breast cancer, as can symptoms of fevers or chills. Bone or joint pains can sometimes be manifestations of metastatic breast cancer, as can jaundice or neurological symptoms. These symptoms are "non-specific", meaning they can also be manifestations of many other illnesses.^[20]
Most symptoms of breast disorder do not turn out to represent underlying breast cancer. Benign breast diseases such as mastitis and fibroadenoma of the breast are more common causes of breast disorder symptoms. The appearance of a new symptom should be taken seriously by both patients and their doctors, because of the possibility of an underlying breast cancer at almost any age.^[21]

Breast Cancer Classification

2010-09-15T11:31:00.001-07:00

Classification

Main article: Breast cancer classification

Breast cancers can be classified by different schemata. Every aspect influences treatment response and prognosis. Description of a breast cancer would optimally include multiple classification aspects, as well as other findings, such as signs found on physical exam. Classification aspects include stage (TNM), pathology, grade, receptor status, and the presence or absence of genes as determined by DNA testing:

Stage. The TNM classification for breast cancer is based on the size of the tumor (T), whether or not the tumor has spread to the lymph nodes (N) in the armpits, and whether the tumor has metastasized (M) (i.e. spread to a more distant part of the body). Larger size, nodal spread, and metastasis have a larger stage number and a worse prognosis.
The main stages are:
Stage 0 is a pre-malignant disease or marker (sometimes called DCIS: Ductal Carcinoma in Situ) .
Stages 1–3 are defined as 'early' cancer and potentially curable.
Stage 4 is defined as 'advanced' and/or 'metastatic' cancer and incurable.

Histopathology. Breast cancer is usually, but not always, primarily classified by its histological appearance. Most breast cancers are' derived from the epithelium lining the ducts or lobules, and are classified as mammary ductal carcinoma. Carcinoma in situ is proliferation of cancer cells within the epithelial tissue without invasion of the surrounding tissue. In contrast, invasive carcinoma invades the surrounding tissue.^[11]

Grade (Bloom-Richardson grade). When cells become differentiated, they take different shapes and forms to function as part of an organ. Cancerous cells lose that differentiation. In cancer grading, tumor cells are generally classified as well differentiated (low grade), moderately differentiated (intermediate grade), and poorly differentiated (high grade). Poorly differentiated cancers have a worse prognosis.

Receptor status. Cells have receptors on their surface and in their cytoplasm and nucleus. Chemical messengers such as hormones bind to receptors, and this causes changes in the cell. Breast cancer cells may or may not have three important receptors: estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2/neu. Cells with none of these receptors are called basal-like or triple negative. ER+ cancer cells depend on estrogen for their growth, so they can be treated with drugs to block estrogen effects (e.g. tamoxifen), and generally have a better prognosis.
Generally, HER2+ had a worse prognosis,^[12] however HER2+ cancer cells respond to drugs such as the monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab, (in combination with conventional chemotherapy) and this has improved the prognosis significantly.^[13]

DNA microarrays have compared normal cells to breast cancer cells and found differences in hundreds of genes, but the significance of most of those differences is unknown.

Breast Cancer research and treatment

2010-09-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Breast cancer (malignant breast neoplasm) is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas.
Prognosis and survival rate varies greatly depending on cancer type and staging. ^[1] Computerized models are available to predict survival.^[2] With best treatment and dependent on staging, 10-year disease-free survival varies from 98% to 10%. Treatment includes surgery, drugs (hormonal therapy and chemotherapy), and radiation.
Worldwide, breast cancer comprises 10.4% of all cancer incidence among women, making it the most common type of non-skin cancer in women and the fifth most common cause of cancer death.^[3] In 2004, breast cancer caused 519,000 deaths worldwide (7% of cancer deaths; almost 1% of all deaths).^[4] Breast cancer is about 100 times more common in women than in men, although males tend to have poorer outcomes due to delays in diagnosis.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]
Some breast cancers are sensitive to hormones such as estrogen and/or progesterone which makes it possible to treat them by blocking the effects of this hormones in the target tissues. These have better prognosis and require less aggressive treatment than hormone negative cancers.
Breast cancers without hormone receptors, or which have spread to the lymph nodes in the armpits, or which express certain genetic characteristics, are higher-risk, and are treated more aggressively. One standard regimen, popular in the U.S., is cyclophosphamide plus doxorubicin (Adriamycin), known as CA; these drugs damage DNA in the cancer, but also in fast-growing normal cells where they cause serious side effects. Sometimes a taxane drug, such as docetaxel, is added, and the regime is then known as CAT; taxane attacks the microtubules in cancer cells. An equivalent treatment, popular in Europe, is cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil (CMF).^[9] Monoclonal antibodies, such as trastuzumab (Herceptin), are used for cancer cells that have the HER2 mutation. Radiation is usually added to the surgical bed to control cancer cells that were missed by the surgery, which usually extends survival, although radiation exposure to the heart may cause damage and heart failure in the following years.^[10]