Cancer Studies > Breast Cancer > Breast Cancer Information

A breast is made up of three parts: glands, ducts, and connective tissue. The glands produce milk. The ducts are passages that carry milk to the nipple. The connective tissue (composed of fibrous and fatty tissue) connects and holds everything together.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women in North America and Europe. Close to 200,000 cases of breast cancer was diagnosed in the United States in 2001. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American women behind lung cancer. The lifetime risk of a woman developing breast cancer is about 1 in 8 although the lifetime risk of dying from breast cancer is much lower 1 to 28. Men are also the risk for developing breast cancer, although this risk is much lower than for women.

Normal Breast

No breast is typical. What is normal for you may not be normal for another woman. Most women say their breasts feel Lumpy or uneven. The way your breasts look and feel can be influenced by getting your period, with children, losing or gaining weight, and taking certain medications. Breasts also tend to change as you age.

Lumps In The Breast

Many conditions can cause lumps in the breast, including cancer. But most breast lumps are caused by other medical disorders. The two most common causes of breast lumps are cysts and fibrocystic breast condition. Fibrocystic condition causes noncancerous changes in the breast that she can lumpy, tender, and painful. Cysts are small fluid-filled blisters that can develop in the chest.

Tumors and breast cancer

Sometimes it is abnormal breast cells. These abnormal cells grow, divide and create new cells that the body does not need and do not function normally. The extra cells form a mass called a tumor. Some tumors are benign or cancer. These tumors usually stay in one spot in the chest and cause no major health problems. Other tumors are evil and his cancer. Breast cancer often starts out small to feel. As it grows, it can spread over the breast to other parts of the body. This causes serious health problems and can cause death.

Breast Cancer

The breast is a collection of glands and fatty tissue that lies between the skin and chest wall. The glands in the breast produce milk after a woman has a baby. Each gland is also called a lobule, and many lobules make up a lobe. There are 15 to 20 lobes in each breast. The milk is of the glands to the nipple through tubes called ducts. The glands and ducts increase when a breast is filled with milk, but the tissue that is most responsible for the size and shape of the breast is fat. There are also blood vessels and lymphatics in the chest. Lymph is a clear liquid waste product is drained from the breast into the lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small, pea-sized pieces of tissue that filter and clean the lymph. Most lymph nodes drain the breast under the arm in what is called the axilla.

Collections of cells that grow abnormally or without control are called tumors. Tumors that are not able to spread throughout the body can be described as benign and are not thought of as cancer. Tumors have the ability to grow into other tissues or spread to distant parts of the body is referred to as malicious. Malignant tumors in the breast are breast cancer. In theory, each type of tissue in a breast cancer, cancer cells are most likely to develop either the ducts or the glands. These tumors can be classified as invasive ductal carcinoma (cancer cells developing from ducts) or invasive lobular carcinoma (cancer cells developing the lobes).

Sometimes, precancerous cells are found in breast tissue, and are called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS). DCIS and LCIS are diseases in which cancer cells are present in the breast tissue, but are unable to spread or invade other tissues. DCIS represents about 20% for all breast cancers. Because DCIS cells have become capable of invading breast tissue, treatment of DCIS is usually recommended. However the treatment is usually not needed for LCIS.

Common Types Of Breast Cancer

There are different types of breast cancer. The type of breast cancer depends on the breast cells into cancer. Breast cancer can begin in different parts of the breast, like the ducts or the lobes.

Common forms of breast cancer are

• Carcinoma. The most common form of breast cancer. It begins in the cells that the milk ducts in the breast, also called the lining of the chest tubes.
• Carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The abnormal cancer cells are only in the lining of the milk ducts, and not spread to other tissues in the chest.
• Invasive ductal carcinoma. The abnormal cancer cells break through the lines and distribution in other parts of the breast tissue. Invasive cancer cells can also spread to other parts of the body.
• Lobular carcinoma. This type of breast cancer, the cancer cells in the lobes or lobules of the breast to start. Lobules, the glands that make milk.
• Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS). The cancer cells are only found in the breast lobules. Lobular carcinoma in-situ, or LCIS, does not often spread to other tissues.
• Invasive lobular carcinoma. Cancer cells spread from the lobules to the breast tissue close to. These invasive cancer cells can also spread to other parts of the body.

The main risk factor for developing breast cancer is increasing age. As woman rises ages, her risk of breast cancer increases. The risk is also influenced by the age at which a woman begins menstruating (younger age may increase risk), and her age at her first pregnancy (older age may increase risk). Use of exogenous estrogens, sometimes in the form of hormone replacement (HRT) may increase the risk of breast cancer, but the use of oral contraceptives is unlikely to increase risk. Family history is very important in determining the risk of breast cancer.

Any woman with a family history of breast cancer will be increased risk of developing breast cancer themselves. Furthermore, known genetic mutations that increase risk of breast cancer are present in some families, including mutations in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Between 3% to 10% of breast cancers may be related to changes in one of the BRCA genes. Women can inherit these mutations from their parents.

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3. Breast Cancer News
4. Treatment for Breast Cancer
5. Signs of Breast Cancer
6. Lobular Breast Cancer
7. Breast Cancer Facts
8. Breast Cancer Chemo
9. Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer
10. Breast Cancer Diagnostic

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