| SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Breast Cancer
Help Me Understand Breast Cancer
What
Is Breast Cancer?
Breast
cancer is one of the most common cancers to affect women.
Certainly amongst women it is the one that has proven to
be the most deadly. Thousands of individuals each year will
find their lives affected by this disease - whether they
themselves develop it or someone close to them will have
it.
Breast cancer begins in the breast, and this references an
area that goes as high as the collarbone and can reach from
tissue under the arm to the center of the chest. The makeup
of the breast is a combination of fatty tissue, milk ducts,
glands and lobules. Lobules are glands that produce milk.
The most common types of cancers in the breast are usually
found in the lobules or the milk ducts. When a breast cancer
is described as being 'in situ' it means that the cancer remains
contained and has not begun to invade any of the surrounding
tissue.
Ductal
Carcinoma in situ - is when the cancer is located in
the milk duct lining but it has not spread. This is a very
treatable form of the cancer.
Lobular
Carcinoma in situ - is when the cancer is located
in a lobule but has not spread. Some in the medical community
consider this to be just an early warning of possible cancer
while others feel it is cancer but highly treatable as well.
Invasive
Ductal Carcinoma - Is cancer that begins in the lining
of the duct but has broken free to the surrounding tissue.
Invasive
Lobular Carcinoma - Means the cancer has started
in one of the milk producing lobules but has broken through
to surrounding tissue.
Other rarer forms of breast cancer includes: Sarcoma, that
involves the connective tissue of the breast, Paget's
disease that concerns the nipple and the dark tissue surrounding the
nipple, or inflammatory breast cancer that blocks lymph vessels
near the surface of skin tissue and manifests itself by causing
an inflammation. Recurrent breast cancer is cancer that has
returned and may have developed in some other tissue or organ
of the body.
Research throughout a good many centuries has slowly developed
a better understanding of what causes breast cancer and how
it can be treated. Back in the 17th century the medical community
was beginning to gain a clear idea of how the body's circulatory
system worked. From there they realized that when a cancer
developed in the breast it was capable of quickly invading
the rest of the body through the lymph nodes that are located
adjacent to the breasts and under the arms.
To halt the spread of the disease it became the practice to
not only remove the affected breast tissue, but the lymph nodes
as well. There are recorded cases of mastectomies being performed
in the later part of the 19th century. Going forward into more
modern times they have developed a number of different options
for treatments. Though the techniques are greatly advanced,
the principle procedure remains to first remove the cancer
surgically and then follow it up with an option of treatments
that may involve chemotherapy, radiation, and drug therapy.
However in some cases the cancer may be treated without the
surgery.
It has been noted that the occurrence of breast cancer has
greatly increased from the latter part of the twentieth century
on. Extensive research continues into whether this is connected
to the increasingly toxic environment we live in. The need
to understand the causes and prevent the disease in the first
place grows ever stronger.
 |
Get alternative cancer treatments and solve your problem, click here. |
# # # # #
> Home > Cancer Articles
: Main Page
|
