BREAST CANCER JURNAL

Breast cancer is a cancer that starts in the breast, usually in the inner lining of the milk ducts or lobules. There are different types of breast cancer, with different stages (spread), aggressiveness, and genetic makeup. With best treatment, 10-year disease-free survival varies from 98% to 10%. Treatment includes surgery, drugs (hormone therapy and chemotherapy), and radiation.

Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer
(10.4% of all cancer incidence, both sexes counted)and the fifth most common cause of cancer death.In 2004, breast cancer caused 519,000 deaths worldwide (7% of cancer deaths; almost 1% of all deaths).

Breast cancer is about 100 times as frequent among women as among men, but survival rates are equal in both sexes.Some breast cancers require the hormones estrogen and progesterone to grow, and have receptors for those hormones. Those cancers are treated with drugs that interfere with those hormones, usually tamoxifen, and with drugs that shut off the production of estrogen in the ovaries or elsewhere; this may damage the ovaries and end fertility. Low-risk, hormone-sensitive breast cancers may be treated with hormone therapy and radiation alone. Breast cancers without hormone receptors, or which have spread to the lymph nodes in the armpits, or which express certain genetic characeristics, are higher-risk, and are treated more aggressively. One standard regimen, popular in the U.S., is cycophosphamide plus doxorubicin (Adriomycin), 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).

Monoclonal antibodies, such as trastuzumab, 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.

BREAST CANCER NEWS

BREAST CANCER

You may have heard a fair bit about Breast Cancer but really haven't taken much notice as everyone always seems to be saying that breast cancer only affects women 40 years and older. Young women are being diagnosed in their teens, twenties and thirties. Even if the percentage is very low compared to that of older women aged 40 years and older, the point is it does happen. Would you also believe that 1% of all diagnosed breast cancers are in men?

If Breast Cancer is detected early, chances of survival are very high.Treatment now is so much improved and getting better results. It helps if you can understand what to look out for and also how to check your own breasts and take ownership of the health of your breasts. It's not really such a big deal and it's easy to do and gives you peace of mind as you grow older.