Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Breast Cancer Overview

By Dr Taylor Cromish

Breast cancer is a malignant growth that starts from cells in the breast. It is one of the commonest cancers women suffer and between 40 and 55 years of age. It is unfortunately one of the main causes of female death below the age of 60 but more women now beat it than ever.

Understandably many women fear breast cancer. Modern treatment is curing more women than ever but as with most illnesses early diagnosis leads to better odds of cure. Men do get breast cancer but there is a much lower incidence.

Incidence

Breast cancer rates have increased by more than 50% over the last twenty years. The highest rates of breast cancer occur in Northern Europe and North America and the lowest rates are in parts of Africa and Asia. The good news is thanks to better diagnosis and treatment survival rates are improving.

Death rates have been dropping steadily since 1990 and one of the keys to this is early diagnosis. Indeed medical experts attribute the decline in breast cancer deaths to both this and more effective treatments.

Treatment of Breast Cancer

The treatment you will get depends on the type of cancer and if it has gone out of your breast elsewhere in your body. How far, if at all, the cancer has spread is called staging. Stage 0 means the cancer is just in the breast and stage 4 means it is spread through your body. What combination of treatment you receive depends on the stage and is the same for males and females.

Treatment options for breast cancer include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone treatment and biological therapy with drugs such as Herceptin. Treatment takes place in two forms, which are local and systemic.

Localized therapy for breast cancer includes surgery and sometimes x-ray therapy. The drug treatments can affect your whole body as well as the cancer but with modern regimens the side effects are not as bad as they used to be.

Survival

More women conquer and beat cancer each year. With earlier diagnosis and smaller spread of cancer survival rates are high. Individuals are all different however and there are lots of examples of women with more advanced cancer beating it and living long lives. Males and females have broadly the same chances of beating the disease.

Breast cancer rates are increasing and affect all ages. It is devastating to be diagnosed with cancer. But with better and earlier detection breast cancer can be beaten.

Breast cancer does not mean you are going to die but it is an enormous shock, which can be taken on and overcome. Female relatives may need to be assessed as many cancers are related to particular genes.

About the Author:

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Breast cancer is one of the major disease for the women.it is mostly found in the age between fourty to fifty.it can prevent by radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone treatment etc.This post is so useful for who wants to prevent beast cancer.


Stage 4 breast cancer