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Breast Cancer Monitoring
After the woman has undergone treatment for the elimination of breast cancer, you need to make stricter controls over the first five years. After they shall continue to be controlled like any healthy woman.
The controls are:
During the first two years, physical examinations will be conducted every three months and annual mammography.
Over the next three years, the physical examinations conducted every six months and annual mammography will also.
These controls will not require any other evidence provided that the woman is asymptomatic and her doctor so it sees fit.
Other tests are not uncommon blood tests, chest radiography and serial bone X-rays. You can perform some other evidence relating to any symptoms that the patient present.
Treatment of Breast Cancer
Treatment is determined by tumor size and whether there has been spread to lymph or other body areas. Usually, when the tumor is less than 1 centimeter in diameter, surgery is enough to end cancer and chemotherapy is not needed. However, there are few cases that do not require an adjunct to surgery or with chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Currently the most important prognostic factor remains the lymph node: the number of involved nodes oncologist to help select subsequent treatment.
The surgical procedure was always done by a surgeon / gynecologist expert in breast cancer, allows local control of the disease and carry out an accurate diagnosis because it can determine the characteristics of the tumor and the number of nodes affected by malignant cells .
Radiotherapy is the use of high-energy rays such as X rays, to destroy or decrease the number of cancer cells. Local treatment is given after conservative surgery (when used after mastectomy is because it believes that there is a risk that the tumor is played). It develops over about 20-30 days (the oncologist and the radiologist felt it appropriate), and the patient goes to an outpatient clinic or room where radiation therapy is performed, does not have to be hospitalized for it.
As such, the treatment lasts a few minutes. It is not painful but it is something like an X-ray radiation only is greater and is concentrated in the affected area. What is achieved with radiotherapy is to reduce the size of the tumor, then surgery to remove or, upon completion of the operation, clear the area of malignant cells.
Diagnosis of Breast Cancer
At present the best fight against breast cancer is early detection of tumor as increase the chances of successful treatment.
¬ self-examination
Systematic self-examination can detect tumors smaller than that can detect the doctor or nurse because the woman is familiar with your breasts and can detect any small change.
In the screening tests, the doctor finds that there is no irregularity in the breast, also there are no swollen lymph nodes under the arm.
The self-examination should be performed after menstruation, menopausal women should associate with a day of the month, it should always be performed in similar conditions.
Women should be quiet and do it in place that believes most appropriate. Some women seem more comfortable when executing it in the shower, however, others may prefer to do it at bedtime.
The most appropriate way to observe changes in the breast is placed in front of a mirror with arms at your sides. You have to observe the symmetry of the breasts, skin appearance, profile, etc..
We must find red spots, bumps or dimples. The appearance must not remember the orange peel. The nipples and areolas must not be recessed or sunken.
Once done, it has to repeat the operation but with arms raised over the neck. The breasts should be raised in the same way and in that position, check that there is no bulge or dimple.
Palpation can be performed once soapy in the shower, or lying in bed with a pillow under your shoulder for the breast to be examined. It should be repeated in different positions: lying and standing.
You should use the opposite hand to the breast to be felt. The pressure will be well enough to recognize the breast.
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Breast Cancer Symptoms
In the early stages of breast cancer women often produces no symptoms. The breast pain is not a sign of cancer although 10% of these patients is often present without any palpable mass.
The first sign is usually a lump, to touch, different note of the breast tissue around it. It is often noted with irregular, hard, painless to the touch. Sometimes color changes occur and tension in the skin of the affected area.
Not all malignant tumors have these characteristics as some have regular borders and are soft to the touch. For this reason, when any abnormality is detected you should consult your doctor.
In the early stages, the lump under the skin can move his fingers. In later stages, the tumor is usually attached to the chest wall or overlying skin and does not scroll. The nodule is often clearly palpable and even armpit nodes may enlarge. The symptoms of these steps are varied and depend on the size and extent of the tumor.
Other signs that may occur are:
- Pain or nipple retraction.
- Irritation of the skin or fissures.
- Inflammation of a portion of the breast.
- Redness or scaling of the skin or nipple.
- Discharge from the nipple than breast milk.
Breast Cancer: Risk Factors
The cause of breast cancer is not known but we do know some risk factors. It is considered a risk factor that situation that increases the chance of developing the disease.
Keep in mind that women who are more likely to develop breast cancer (by having more risk factors) can take preventive measures to reduce the likelihood and periodic revisions or changes in your lifestyle.
RISK FACTORS
** Sex
Breast cancer occurs mainly in women though. It can also affect men but the probability is much lower.
** Age
An elderly carries an increased number of cancers. 60% of breast tumors occur in women over 60 years. This percentage increases much more after 75 years.
** Genes
There are two identified genes that, when any change in them (mutation) are associated with an increased likelihood of developing breast cancer. These genes are called BRCA1 and BRCA2, and according to some studies it seems that between 50% and 60% of women who have inherited the mutated genes can develop cancer before age 70.
** Family history
When a first-degree relative (mother, sister, daughter) had breast cancer doubles the risk of autism. If this is a more distant relative (grandmother, aunt, cousin) increases the risk only slightly.
** Personal history
A previous benign breast disease seems to increase risk in women who have a large number of ducts. Still, this risk is moderate. Some abnormal breast biopsy may be related to a slightly elevated risk of breast cancer. The risk of developing cancer in the other breast in women who have had breast cancer is different from the first recurrence or recurrence of cancer.
Stages of Breast Cancer
The cancer has a different prognosis and treatment depending on the stage of development that are in and the risk factors that women have. For this we must perform a series of analysis to facilitate their classification in one or another stage.
The American Joint Committee on Cancer uses the TNM classification system:
* The letter T, followed by a number ranging from 0 to 4 indicates the size of the tumor and spread to the skin or chest wall under the breast. A higher number corresponds to a larger tumor and / or a higher spread to nearby tissues.
* The letter N, followed by a number ranging from 0 to 3 indicates whether the cancer has spread to lymph nodes near the breast and, if so, whether these nodes are attached to other structures.
* The letter M, followed by a 0 or 1, stated whether the cancer has spread to distant organs.
The classification for subgroups is done with numbers ranging from I to IV.
Stage I: indicates that the tumor is less than 2 cm and no metastasis. The relative survival rate 5 years is 98%.
Stage II: includes the following situations:
- No larger than 2 cm but the lymph nodes under the arm are affected.
- Measure 2 to 5 cm and may or may not have spread.
- It is more than 5 cm but the axillary lymph nodes are not affected. The survival rate at 5 years is 88-76%.
Prostate Cancer
It is a malignant tumor that develops in the prostate gland. It consists of uncontrolled growth of prostate cells. This means, among other things, that the prostate, because of its location, press on the bladder and urethra by preventing the normal urine output.
Most prostate cancers grow very slowly, although some do it quickly, they can even spread.
The prostate is a glandular organ, the size of a walnut, found in men and situated around the neck of the bladder and urethra, in front of the rectum. Some liquid, whitish and viscous, which is mixed with sperm at the time of ejaculation.
There are lymph vessels surrounding the prostate and that lead to pelvic lymph nodes.
When a prostate cancer, there is the possibility that cancer cells spreading through lymphatic vessels and affect the lymph and from there to anywhere on the body.
Types of Breast Cancer
Most tumors that occur in the breast are benign, not cancerous, and are due to fibrocystic formations. The cyst is a fluid-filled sac and fibrosis is an abnormal development of connective tissue. Fibrosis does not increase the risk of developing a tumor and does not require special treatment. The cysts, if large, can be painful. Removing the fluid with a needle usually take away the pain. The presence of one or more cysts does not favor the occurrence of malignant tumors.
Benign tumors are related mostly to genetic factors. Symptoms that occur are pain and inflammation but not spread to the rest of the body and are not dangerous. In malignant tumors, there are several types depending on the location of the breast where there is abnormal growth of cells and depending on their stage.
Tumors may be localized or have spread through the blood vessels or through lymph vessels, and have led to metastasize, a cancer in an organ distant to the original. Of all cases of breast cancer, only 7-10% of them start metastases.