Saturday, December 20, 2008

Stage 4 Cancer: Understanding Breast Cancer

By Jenni Snook

Breast cancer is probably the most common cancer affecting women. It may be true that this risk to men is minute, nevertheless, it is essential that everyone understands the risk to them. This is especially true when it comes to women. This article covers everything you need to know about breast cancer, in particular, the symptoms that you need to recognise in order to diagnose the disease as early as possible.

Breast cancer can be defined as unusual growth that occurs in the breasts region of the body. For women, it's natural that the breasts change size every month due to their menstrual cycle. It's possible that you may feel a sort of ball or lump when examining your breasts. Many of these may not be dangerous, nevertheless there exists the potential that they may be cancerous. The danger is that if one of these lumps is actually cancerous, then it could potentially mestastisize to other regions of the body. This simply means that it could disperse. Cells from the breasts can travel to other areas of your body via the bloodstream of lymphatic system. This diffusion can be pretty slow, or in some cases, it can be rather quick.

You may have heard medical experts say on various occasions that in the early phases of breast cancer, you may not detect any symptoms at all. As a result, symptoms tend to become more obvious as the cancer grows. You should be able to detect at least one of the following symptoms if you have cancer:

1. Feeling pain as well as soreness in the breast.

2. One or both of your breasts may begin to discharge and this can be either without colour, slightly yellow or even ressemble blood.

3. If the size of the breasts changes, this may be an indication of cancer. However, other changes may occur that are related to the contour and even the overall texture. In addition to this, if a breast feels exceptionally hot to touch, there could be an underlying issue that is serious in nature.

4. Other signs of breast cancer are swelling in the breast or in the lymph node that is located under your arm.

5. It's common for people to start feeling itchy, some burns and physical ulcerations on the breast's skin.

There is not just one type of breast cancer, there are various. There are also some physical signs that indicate that breast cancer has begun to grow. It's absolutely vital that you know how to do a breast examination on a regularly. Doing it once or twice every month is enough. The above symptoms are a good indication if you have breast cancer, and you should immediately call your doctor and get an examination if any of them appear.

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