“Breast cancer” what is this? I know most of you know the answer for that, but why is this month of October declared as the month of breast cancer awareness? Is this that significant?
According to statistics breast cancer is the 2nd most common cancer next to lung cancer.
One might think breast cancer affects only the females but ironically it also occurs in males due to the fact that breast is composed of similar tissues in both females and males.Even though the prevalence of breast cancer in men is lower but the survival rate in males is to that of females
Right now the cause for breast cancer is unclear but there are some studies going on in this field according to which the most significant factors are the advanced age and family history of breast cancer. Researchers have isolated 2 genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 which in some instances are the cause for the expression of breast cancer. The other factor is exposure to hormone estrogen which increases cell division in turn leads to dysplastic changes and then cancer. Alcohol consumption and radiation exposure also increase the risk of developing breast cancer. A protein HER2(human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) which accelerates tumor formation is found to be over-expressed in 20-30% breast cancers
While in men the important risk factors include Klinefelter syndrome along with the factors that pose risk in women
Symptoms:
The most common symptom a woman observes is a lump or mass in her breasts. Generally women are encouraged to perform breast self examination in order to find any lumps in their breast. The other important symptoms are changes in the size and shape of the breast, inversion of the nipple, dimpling of the skin and discharge from a single nipple. Hotness around nipple is cited in conditions like inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). Paget’s disease of breast in which approximately 50% of the diagnosed women have a lump in their breast with the features of tingling , itching , mild flaking of nipple , increased sensitivity , burning and redness. Breast cancer can metastasize to bone, liver, lung, brain etc, presenting with bone or joint pains, jaundice and neurological symptoms with all these the common symptom is unexplained weight loss
The symptoms in men also follow the same pattern.
Diagnosis:
Diagnosis is based on mammogram studies and microscopic analysis of the tissue samples collected from breast using certain modalities like fine-needle aspiration, nipple aspirates, ductal lavage, core needle biopsy, and local surgical excision. These diagnostic steps, when coupled with radiographic imaging techniques like X-ray, CT scan and MRI better results.
CT scan, chest X-ray and MRI are useful in determining any metastasis of the cancer beyond the breasts.
Treatment:
Treatment of breast cancer is based on staging of the cancer (TNM staging). The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized. The other modalities for treatment are chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a recent innovation laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT).
Surgery for breast cancer may depend on the extent of involvement i.e., mastectomy (complete removal of all of the breast tissue), lumpectomy (breast-conserving surgery, is the removal of only the tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue.). Sometimes surgery can be prophylactic like prophylactic oophorectomy and prophylactic mastectomy which reduces the risk of cancer in high risk individuals. After surgery women are put on an adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy to destroy the lingering cancer cells
Hormonal therapy is a modality of treatment for estrogen and progesterone receptor sensitive breast cancer. Tamoxifen which is selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) is the most used drug against estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
Prognosis:
Prognosis in a woman depends on several factors like staging , age , degree of differentiation of cancerous cells, size of tumor , location and whether tumor has metastasized or not
Younger women tend to have a poorer prognosis than post-menopausal women.
Prognosis is poorer for women with greater staging at the time of diagnosis
Women with well differentiated cancerous cells in the sample tissue from the breast have good prognosis when compared with women who have poor degree of differentiation of cancerous cells.
Preventive Measures:
Modifying the life style (abstinence to alcohol) and taking diet containing less fat and diary products, breast feeding, lower age at first child birth and having more children are proven to reduce the risk
Hope this info we provided would be useful to you. Please send in your valuable feedback to us at medicoconsult@yahoo.com or post your comment below
Thank you,
From the team of Medico Consult
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