About Breast Cancer
A breast is made up of three parts: glands, ducts, and connective tissue. The glands produce milk. The ducts are passages that carry milk to the nipple. The connective tissue (composed of fibrous and fatty tissue) connects and holds everything together.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in North America and Europe. Nearly 200,000 cases of breast cancer was diagnosed in the United States in 2001. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American women lung cancer. The risk the life of a woman developing breast cancer is about 1 in 8 although the lifetime risk of dying from breast cancer is much lower than 1-28. Men are also at risk of developing breast cancer, although this risk is much lower for women.
Normal Breast
No breast is typical. What is normal for you may not be normal for another woman. Most women say their breasts feel lumps or irregular. The way her breasts look and feel can be affected by getting your period, with children, the loss or weight gain, and taking certain medicines. Breasts also tend to change, such as age.
Lump in the breast
Many conditions can cause breast nodules, including cancer. Lump in the breast, but most are caused by other medical conditions. The two most common causes of breast lumps are cysts and fibrocystic breast condition. Fibrocystic condition causes noncancerous changes in the breast that you can lumpy, tender, and painful. Small cysts are fluid-filled blisters that may develop in the chest.
Tumors and breast cancer
Sometimes it is abnormal breast cells. These abnormal cells grow, divide and create new cells that the body does not need and do not function normally. The extra cells form a mass called tumor. Some tumors are benign or cancer. These tumors usually stay in one place in the chest and do not cause serious health problems. Other tumors are evil and his cancer. Breast cancer often begins in small to feel. As it develops, you can cover the breast to other parts of the body. This causes serious health problems and can cause death.
Breast cancer
The breast is a collection of glands and fatty tissue that lies between the skin and the chest wall. The glands in the production of breast milk after a woman has a child. Each gland is also called a lobe, and many lobules make up a lobe. There are 15-20 lobes in each breast. The milk glands to the nipple through tubes called ducts. The glands and ducts increase when a breast is filled with milk, but the fabric that is more responsible for the size and shape of the breast is fat. There are also blood vessels and lymphatics in the chest. Lymph is a clear liquid waste product is removed from the breast to lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small, pea-sized pieces of tissue that filter and clean the lymph. More lymph nodes draining the breast under the arm in what is called the axilla.
Collections of cells that grow abnormally or without control are called tumors. Tumors that are not able to spread throughout the body can be described as benign and are not intended as cancer. Tumors have the ability to develop into other tissues or spread to distant parts of the body is called “evil.” Malignant tumors of the breast are cancer of the breast. In theory, any type of tissue in a breast cancer, the cancer cells are more likely to develop both the ducts or glands. These tumors can be classified as invasive ductal carcinoma (cancer cells developing from ducts) or invasive lobular carcinoma (cancer cells developing lobes).
Sometimes, precancerous cells are present in breast tissue, and are called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or lobular carcinoma in situ (LCI). Ductal carcinoma in situ and LCI are diseases in which cancer cells are present in breast tissue, but are not able to spread or invade other tissues. DCIS represents about 20% for all breast cancers. Because DCIS cells have become capable of invading breast tissue, the treatment of DCIS is usually recommended. However treatment is not usually necessary for LCI.
Common types of breast cancer
There are different types of breast cancer. The type of breast cancer depends on breast cells into cancer. Breast cancer can begin in different parts of the breast, as the ducts or lobes.
Common forms of breast cancer
carcinoma. The most common form of breast cancer. Begins in the cells of milk ducts in the breast, also called the lining of the chest tubes.
carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The abnormal cancer cells are only in the lining of the milk ducts, and has not spread to other tissues of the chest.
invasive ductal carcinoma. The abnormal cancer cells break through the lines and distribution in other parts of the breast tissue. Invasive cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body.
lobular carcinoma. This type of breast cancer, tumor cells in the lobes or lobules of the breast to start. Lobules, the glands that make milk.
lobular carcinoma in situ (LCI). The tumor cells are found only in the lobules of the breast. Lobular carcinoma in situ, or LCI, often spread to other tissues.
invasive lobular carcinoma. Tumor cells spread from the lobules to the end of breast tissue. These invasive cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body.
The main risk factor for developing breast cancer is increasing age. As women age rises, it increases the risk of breast cancer. The risk is also influenced by the age at which a woman begins menstruating (early age can increase the risk), and her age at first pregnancy (older age may increase the risk). Use of exogenous estrogens, sometimes in the form of hormone replacement (HRT) may increase the risk of breast cancer, but the use of oral contraceptives is unlikely to increase the risk. Family history is very important in determining the risk of breast cancer.
A woman with a family history of breast cancer is increased risk of developing breast cancer themselves. Furthermore, known genetic mutations that increase the risk of breast cancer are present in some families, including mutations in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Between 3% to 10% of breast cancers may be related to changes in one of the BRCA genes. Women can inherit these mutations from their parents.