What To Know About Breast Cancer
There are things you should know to understand what breast cancer is, know your chances for getting it, and how to find it early. Finding breast cancer early is critical because when it is found early, it is easier to treat. Read to learn more about the common symptoms of breast cancer and the best way many women find breast cancer early and take affordable breast cancer treatment in Navi Mumbai.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women, after skin cancer. It is a disease in which cells in the breast grow out of control. Cancer cells can also spread, or metastasize, to other parts of the body
What symptoms should I look for?
Some warning signs of breast cancer are:
• New lump in the breast or underarm (armpit).
• Thickening or swelling of part of the breast.
• Irritation or dimpling of breast skin.
• Redness or flaky skin in the nipple area or the breast.
• Pulling in of the nipple.
• Nipple discharge other than breast milk, including blood.
• Any change in the size or shape of the breast.
• Pain in the breast.
These symptoms can happen with other conditions that are not cancer. If you notice any of these symptoms, talk to your health care provider right away.
Causes
Oncologist doctors in Navi Mumbai know that breast cancer occurs when some breast cells begin to grow abnormally. These cells divide more rapidly than healthy cells do and continue to accumulate, forming a lump or mass. Cells may spread (metastasize) through your breast to your lymph nodes or to other parts of your body.
Breast cancer most often begins with cells in the milk-producing ducts (invasive ductal carcinoma). Breast cancer may also begin in the glandular tissue called lobules (invasive lobular carcinoma) or in other cells or tissue within the breast.
Researchers have identified hormonal, lifestyle and environmental factors that may increase your risk of breast cancer. But it’s not clear why some people who have no risk factors develop cancer, yet other people with risk factors never do. It’s likely that breast cancer is caused by a complex interaction of your genetic makeup and your environment.
Breast cancer stages
Doctors divide breast cancer into stages based on the size of the tumor and how much it has spread.
Cancers that are large or have invaded nearby tissues or organs are at a higher stage than cancers that are small or still contained in the breast. To stage breast cancer, doctors need to know:
- if the cancer is invasive or noninvasive
- how large the tumor is
- whether the lymph nodes are involved
- if the cancer has spread to nearby tissue or organs
Breast cancer has five main stages: stages 0 to 4.
Stage 0 breast cancer
Stage 0 is DCIS. Cancer cells in DCIS remain confined to the ducts in the breast and have not spread into nearby tissue.
Stage 1 breast cancer
- Stage 1A. The primary tumor is 2 centimeters (cm) wide or less. The lymph nodes are not affected.
- Stage 1B. Cancer is found in nearby lymph nodes. Either there is no tumor in the breast, or the tumor is smaller than 2 cm.
Stage 2 breast cancer
- Stage 2A. The tumor is smaller than 2 cm and has spread to 1 to 3 nearby lymph nodes, or it’s between 2 and 5 cm and hasn’t spread to any lymph nodes.
- Stage 2B. The tumor is between 2 and 5 cm and has spread to 1 to 3 axillary (armpit) lymph nodes, or it’s larger than 5 cm and hasn’t spread to any lymph nodes.
Stage 3 breast cancer
- Stage 3A.
- The cancer has spread to 4 to 9 axillary lymph nodes or has enlarged the internal mammary lymph nodes. The primary tumor can be any size.
- Tumors are greater than 5 cm. The cancer has spread to 1 to 3 axillary lymph nodes or any breastbone nodes.
- Stage 3B. A tumor has invaded the chest wall or skin and may or may not have invaded up to 9 lymph nodes.
- Stage 3C. Cancer is found in 10 or more axillary lymph nodes, lymph nodes near the collarbone, or internal mammary nodes.
Stage 4 breast cancer (metastatic breast cancer)
Stage 4 breast cancer can have a tumor of any size. Its cancer cells have spread to nearby and distant lymph nodes as well as distant organs.
The testing your doctor does will determine the stage of your breast cancer, which will affect your treatment.
Breast cancer treatment
Your breast cancer’s stage, how far it has invaded (if it has), and how big the tumor has grown all play a large part in determining what kind of treatment you’ll need.
To start, your doctor will determine your cancer’s size, stage, and grade. Your cancer’s grade describes how likely it is to grow and spread. After that, you can discuss your treatment options.
Surgery is the most common treatment for breast cancer. Many people have additional treatments, such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiation, or hormone therapy.
Surgery
Several types of surgery may be used to remove breast cancer, including:
- Lumpectomy. This procedure removes the tumor and some surrounding tissue, leaving the rest of the breast intact.
- Mastectomy. In this procedure, a surgeon removes an entire breast. In a double mastectomy, they remove both breasts.
- Sentinel node biopsy. This surgery removes a few of the lymph nodes that receive drainage from the tumor. These lymph nodes will be tested. If they don’t have cancer, you may not need additional surgery to remove more lymph nodes.
- Axillary lymph node dissection. If lymph nodes removed during a sentinel node biopsy contain cancer cells, your doctor may remove additional lymph nodes.
- Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. Even though breast cancer may be present in only one breast, some people elect to have a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy. This surgery removes your healthy breast to lower your risk of developing breast cancer again.
Radiation therapy
With radiation therapy, high-powered beams of radiation are used to target and kill cancer cells. Most radiation treatments use external beam radiation. This technique uses a large machine on the outside of the body.
Advances in cancer treatment have also enabled doctors to irradiate cancer from inside the body.
To conduct brachytherapy, surgeons place radioactive seeds, or pellets, inside the body near the tumor site. The seeds stay there for a short period of time and work to destroy cancer cells.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a drug treatment used to destroy cancer cells. Some people may undergo chemotherapy on its own, but this type of treatment is often used along with other treatments, especially surgery.
Some people will have surgery first followed by other treatments, such as chemo or radiation. This is called adjuvant therapy. Others may have chemotherapy first to shrink the cancer, called neoadjuvant therapy, and then surgery.
In some cases, doctors prefer to give chemotherapy before surgery. The hope is that the treatment will shrink the tumor, and then the surgery will not need to be as invasive.
Chemotherapy in has many unwanted side effects, so discuss your concerns with your doctor before starting treatment.