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Introduction
Breast cancer is the commonest cause of cancer in women and the second commonest cause of death due to cancerous growth in women in the U.S. alone. While the most of the newer breast cancers are named as a result of an abnormality seen in a mammogram, lumps or changes in consistency of the breast tissues can also be a warning signs of the condition. There is increase in awareness of breast cancer risks in the past decade and this has led increased in the number of women opting for mammogram for screening and this leads to the detection of cancerous growth in early stages and a resultant betterment in survival rates.
Though, the breast cancer is the commonest cause of death in women, especially between the ages of 45-55. Although such condition in woman is a common form of cancer, in some of the unfortunate males, breast cancer can occur and it does account for about 1% of all cancer deaths in men!
How the cancer progress?
The cancer begins in cell, the building block that makes up the tissue. Tissues then make up the organ of the body and many organs the system. It is therefore, when cancerous growth affect even one cell, it starts affecting the entire organ and the bodily system related to that. Normally, the cell grows and divides to form new cell as the body requires them. When a cell grows old, it dies, and new cell takes its place.
Sometimes, this order or the process goes wrong. The new cell form when the body does not need it and old cell does not die when it should. These extra cells, together, form a mass of tissues called a growth or tumor. They are unidentified many times till they enter into their catastrophic stage.
Types of breast cancer/tumor growth
The tumors can be benign or malignant. Benign tumors, generally, are not considered to be cancerous and they are rarely life-threatening. Normally, benign tumors can be removed easily and they generally do not grow back. The cells from benign tumors do not invade any kind of tissue around them and the cells of benign tumors do not travel/spread to other sites of the body.
On the other hand, malignant tumors are cancerous and malignant tumors are normally more serious as compared to the benign tumors. They might be life-threatening. And such tumors often can be removed but unfortunately, some times they grow back brining life-threatening conditions. Cells from malignant tumors can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs.
Cells that belong to malignant tumors can spread (medically, such condition is called as metastasize) to other sites of the body internally or externally. Cancerous cells spread by leaking from the original (primary) tumors and then they enter into the bloodstream or lymphatic system. The cells then encroach upon other sites or bodily-organs and form new tumors that completely disable those particular organs. The spread of cancer is medically known as metastasis.
Spreading and treatment
When breast cancerous cells spread, they are often found in lymph-node that is nearer to the breasts. Also, breast cancer can cover almost any other parts of the body. Few of the common include the bones, liver, lungs, and brain. The new tumor shows the same kind of abnormal cell and the same name as the primary tumor. For instance, if breasts cancer take-over to the bones, the cancer cells in the bones are generally breast cancer cells. The diseases would be then a metastasis breast cancer, not bone cancer. For this reason, it is taken and then treated as breast cancer, not bone cancer. Oncologists label this new tumor as distant disease.
The treatment depends upon the growth and the type of cancer. Chemotherapy and cancer removing (mastectomy) might work or may not. Not all the breast cancers are fatal but if they meet certain extreme criteria, they might.
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