The deadly link between alcohol and breast cancer is "ignored by middle-aged women"

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers in the world. Every year in the UK, there are more than 55,000 new cases and the disease kills 11,500 women. In the United States, it hits 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what is the cause and how can it be treated?

What is bad cancer?

Breast cancer develops from a cancer cell that grows in the wall of a cbad or lobule in one of the bads.

When bad cancer has spread to surrounding bad tissue, it is called "invasive" bad cancer. In situ carcinoma is diagnosed in some people, where no cancer cells have developed beyond the cbad or lobule.

Most cases develop in women over 50, but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men although this is rare.

Cancer cells are clbadified from stage one, which means slow growth, up to stage four, which is the most aggressive.

What causes bad cancer?

A cancerous tumor starts from an abnormal cell. The exact reason a cell becomes cancerous is not clear. Something is thought to damage or alter certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiplies "out of control".

Although bad cancer may develop for no apparent reason, some risk factors, such as genetics, may increase the risk of developing bad cancer.

What are the symptoms of bad cancer?

The first common symptom is a painless mbad in the bad, although most bad nodules are non-cancerous and are fluid-filled cysts, which are benign.

The first place where bad cancer usually spreads is the lymph nodes of the armpit. If this happens, you will develop swelling or lumpiness in the armpit.

How is bad cancer diagnosed?

• First badessment: a doctor examines the bads and armpits. They can do tests like a mammogram, a special x-ray of bad tissue that can indicate the possibility of tumors.
• Biopsy: A biopsy involves taking a small sample of tissue from one part of the body. The sample is then examined under a microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or exclude cancer.

If your bad cancer is confirmed, you may need to undergo further tests to determine if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound of the liver or a chest x-ray.

How is bad cancer treated?

Treatment options that may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy. A combination of two or more of these treatments is often used.

• Surgery: Breast surgery conservative or bad removal achieved depending on the size of the tumor.
• Radiation therapy: treatment that uses high energy radiation beams focused on the cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells or prevents their multiplication. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
• Chemotherapy: treatment of cancer using anticancer drugs that kill cancer cells or prevent them from multiplying.
• Hormonal Treatments: Some types of bad cancer are affected by estrogen, a "female" hormone, that can stimulate the division and multiplication of cancer cells. Treatments that reduce the level of these hormones or prevent them from functioning are commonly used in people with bad cancer.

What is the success of the treatment?

The prospects are better in people diagnosed when the cancer is still small and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumor at an early stage can then give good chances of healing.

Routine mammography for women aged 50 to 70 means that more bad cancers are diagnosed and treated at an early stage.

For more information, visit badcancercare.org.uk or www.cancerhelp.org.uk