breastcancer

As soon as you the phrase ‘breast cancer’; the picture of a woman takes shape in your mind. Only the women are prone to this malady.  Though rare, males can also contract this type of cancer.  Cancer that starts in tissues of the breast in males and females is commonly known as breast cancer which is the second most common cancer type in the world.

The first sign of breast cancer is a lump or a mass in the underarm or breast area that feels different to the touch. Other symptoms may be a change in size and shape of the breast, nipple inversion, skin irritation or dimpling, swelling of the full breast or part of it, and a discharge from the nipple.  It pays to be cognizant of these signs for early detection of cancer.

At the first sign of breast cancer, the prudent thing to do is to consult a doctor.  Your doctor will feel your breasts for lumps or any suspect growth.  Benign lumps are different to the touch from the cancerous lumps.  If the doctor suspects it to be cancer, he will clear any doubts he has with the aid of an xray mammography, an ultrasound scan, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan or a biopsy.  If you are diagnosed with the disease, he may order more lab tests to help him further study it and plan his treatment.

Various therapy methods are available for breast cancer.  Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and biological therapy are such treatments.  Out of these, surgery and radiation are local therapies.  The rest is known as systemic treatments.  Local therapies get rid of or kill the cancer in the breast where as systemic treatments go into the blood circulation and check or kill the cancer.

There are many risk factors associated with breast cancer.  If you are a female, the chances of contracting this disease is great as a female’s breast cells are open to hormones like estrogen and progesterone at all times.  As you grow old, the risks grow too.  If someone in your family has had breast cancer, you are more at risk than those who do not have a significant family history.

Breast cancer is supposed to be the fifth most common cause of cancer death in the world.  This goes to show the gravity of this disease.  Anyway, it is consolation enough to learn that vast amounts of funds are expended on research to discover the causes and plan out therapy methods of this disease.