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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 breast cancer?
Breast cancer develops from a cancer cell that grows in the wall of a canal or lobule in one of the breasts.
When breast cancer has spread to surrounding breast tissue, it is called "invasive" breast cancer. In situ carcinoma is diagnosed in some people, where no cancer cells have developed beyond the canal 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 classified from stage one, which means slow growth, up to stage four, which is the most aggressive.
What causes breast 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 breast cancer may develop for no apparent reason, some risk factors, such as genetics, may increase the risk of developing breast cancer.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The first usual symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast nodules are not cancerous and are fluid-filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place where breast cancer usually spreads is the lymph nodes of the armpit. If this happens, you develop swelling or lumpiness in the armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They can do tests like a mammogram, a special x-ray of breast 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 breast cancer is confirmed, additional tests may be needed to determine if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound of the liver or a chest x-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options that may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy. A combination of two or more of these treatments is often used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or removal of the affected breast 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 cancer cells from multiplying. 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 breast 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 breast 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 mammograms offered to women aged 50 to 70 years mean that more breast cancers are diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information, visit breastcancercare.org.uk or www.cancerhelp.org.uk
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