Learn How you can Identify Breast Cancer Early Signs


Breast cancer refers to the type of cancer that is characterized by uncontrolled abnormal growth cells located in the breast tissue. It is the second most common form of cancer that affects women with an incidence of one in eight women.

Breast cancer comes in various forms, the most common types are ductal carcinoma, which is about 85 to 90 percent of the breast and lobular carcinoma, found in approximately eight percent of patients with cancer breast. When cancer starts in the milk-producing lobules is called lobular carcinoma.

It has yet to be a scientific explanation of how breast cells become abnormal and eventually harm. However, breast cancer is attributed to a combination of risk factors a woman can inherit or acquire.


Some breast cancer risk factors are genetic in nature. It is widely accepted that women who have one or more relatives with breast cancer have a higher risk of incidence of breast cancer itself. Studies show that some families have defects in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene and accounts for about ten percent of cases of breast cancer.

Hormonal risk factors are also involved in breast cancer formation. Female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, contributes to the development and division of breast cancer cells. Women can increase the risk of breast cancer if they had hormone replacement therapy during their stages of menopause.

Age and gender play a key role in the development of breast cancer cells. Women are considered to have a risk of one hundred per cent of breast cancer growth than men, especially those in the area above the age of fifty years.

It is also well established that alcohol consumption and weight gain effect contributes to certain diseases, including breast cancer.

Signs and symptoms of breast cancer

Here are some signs that a woman can get breast cancer.
1. A painless lump that grows in the breast area or armpit.
2. unusual changes in the size and shape of the breast.
The stage at which breast cancer is diagnosed largely identifies the required method of treatment and the survival rate for a patient can wait. The following procedures are carried out to establish the occurrence of breast cancer and to identify the phase in which the cancer was diagnosed.

1. Physical Examination - Your doctor will examine the chest by a visual inspection and palpation. Appearance of sores, dimpling, nipple discharge, ulcers, nipple inversion and pouting can mean occurrence of breast cancer. Your doctor may also use the finger pads to feel the breast unusual bumps area. Note that benign tumors have a different feel cancer.

2. Advances in mammography significantly reduces the mortality rate of breast cancer as a malignant tumor often found by mammography in phases where it is very curable.

3. Ultrasound - Using high-frequency sound waves to identify the node status in the chest. If a piece is solid, there is a strong probability that he is cancer tumors filled with opposing fluid, which are usually non-cancerous.

4. Breast biopsy  - When abnormal growth in the womb of a woman is found, a biopsy is performed to extract samples of their tissues. FNA uses a thin needle to remove suspicious cell samples. Surgical biopsy to remove all or part of the suspect area, while large core biopsy uses a large biopsy core needle uses a large core to remove the suspect area.

After the detection of cancer, the physician will determine the cancer development phase in order to establish the required processing method. This is called staging and cancers are classified into five stages.

1. Zero Phase - also called carcinoma in situ is the first stage of the cancer. Lymph nodes and other neighboring organs are always free of cancer cells.

2. The first step - which is a stage when cancer solidifies, but it is even smaller than two centimeters and the cancer cells have not yet spread to other tissues and organs.

3. Stage - at this stage, the cancer has not affected lymph nodes in the armpit its size is about two to three centimeters.

4. Stage - is a stage at which the cancer is larger than five centimeters and has spread to the lymph nodes in the armpit or other areas around the chest.

5. Fourth step - is when the cancer becomes metastatic spread to other organs of the body including the thoracic cavity, bones, lung and liver. Breast cancer treatment is usually grouped into two methods.

1. Local treatment - these are treatments that remove or kill the abnormal cells in a particular area. The systematic treatment - are used to control and eliminate cancer cells in the body. Examples of this treatment is chemotherapy and hormone therapy.

Depending on the severity and location of the growth of cancer and the patient's general state of health, or a combination of these treatments may be applied.

The most common treatment for cancer, the surgical procedure can be done in two ways, sparing surgery and mastectomy. Surgery or mastectomy breast-conserving, suppresses cancerous nodules, but not the whole breast. In addition, the complete dissection of the lymph node dissection or sentinel can be done to see if the cancer has spread to adjacent areas.

2. In radiotherapy - a machine of high energy X-rays used to irradiate the tumor and prevent damage and cells develop. Radiation is often used after surgery to fight to eliminate abnormal cells and fight metastasis and recurrence.

Surgery and radiation therapy can not completely eliminate cancer cells. To kill cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body, one can use chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. Chemotherapy involves the use of cells to kill cancer drugs that can be administered intravenously or orally. Hormone therapy is performed in women with cancer positive for hormone receptors. These forms of breast cancers rely on female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, nutrient and development. Drugs like Tamixofen, Arimidex, Aromasin and Femara are examples of drugs used in hormone therapy.

Get medical advice

For more information on breast cancer, visit your doctor regularly.

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