[FONT="]Breast cancer
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Like all parts of your body, the cells in your breasts usually grow and then rest in cycles. The periods of growth and rest in each cell are controlled by genes in the cell's nucleus. The nucleus is like the control room of each cell. When your genes are in good working order, they keep cell growth under control. But when your genes develop an abnormality, they sometimes lose their ability to control the cycle of cell growth and rest.
Cancer has the potential to break through normal breast tissue barriers and spread to other parts of the body. While cancer is always caused by a genetic "abnormality" (a "mistake" in the genetic material), only 5–10% of cancers are inherited from your mother or father. Instead, 90% of breast cancers are due to genetic abnormalities that happen as a result of the aging process and life in general.
While there are things every woman can do to help her body stay as healthy as possible (such as eating a balanced diet, not smoking, minimizing stress, and exercising regularly), breast cancer is never anyone's fault. Feeling guilty, or telling yourself that breast cancer happened because of something you or anyone else did, is counterproductive.
[FONT="]Symptoms:[/FONT] [FONT="] Breast cancer symptoms vary widely — from lumps to swelling to skin changes — and many breast cancers have no obvious symptoms at all. Symptoms that are similar to those of breast cancer may be the result of non-cancerous conditions like infection or a cyst.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Breast self-exam should be part of your monthly health care routine, and you should visit your doctor if you experience breast changes. If you're over 40 or at a high risk for the disease, you should also have an annual mammogram and physical exam by a doctor. The earlier breast cancer is found and diagnosed, the better your chances of beating it.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Diagnosis:[/FONT] [FONT="] The actual process of diagnosis can take weeks and involve many different kinds of tests. Waiting for results can feel like a lifetime. The uncertainty stinks. But once you understand your own unique "big picture," you can make better decisions. [/FONT]
[FONT="]There are two different stages of testing. Screening tests (such as an annual mammogram) look for signs of disease in women without symptoms; they should be part of every healthy woman's routine. Diagnostic tests (such as magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], blood tests, or bone scans) become part of the picture when breast cancer is suspected or has been diagnosed.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mammograms[/FONT] [FONT="]: are probably the most important tool doctors have to help them diagnose, evaluate, and follow women who've had breast cancer. Safe and highly accurate, a mammogram is an X-ray photograph of the breast. The technique has been in use for about thirty years.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mammograms don't prevent breast cancer, but they can save lives by finding breast cancer as early as possible. For example, mammograms have been shown to lower the risk of dying from breast cancer by 35% in women over the age of 50; studies suggest for women between 40 and 50 they may lower the risk of dying from breast cancer by 25–35%.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Leading experts, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the American College of Radiology now recommend annual mammograms for women over 40.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Finding breast cancers early with mammography has also meant that many more women being treated for breast cancer are able to keep their breasts. When caught early, localized cancers can be removed without resorting to breast removal mastectomy.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Mammograms aren't perfect. Normal breast tissue can hide a breast cancer, so that it doesn't show up on the mammogram. This is called a false negative. And mammography can identify an abnormality that looks like a cancer, but turns out to be normal. This "false alarm" is called a false positive. To make up for these limitations, more than mammography is needed. Women also need to practice breast [/FONT][FONT="]self examination, get regular breast examination by an experienced health care professional, and, in some cases, also get another form of breast imaging, like ultrasound or MRI scanning.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ultrasound[/FONT] [FONT="]: sends high-frequency sound waves through your breast and converts them into images on a viewing screen. Ultrasound complements other tests. If an abnormality is seen on mammography or felt by physical exam, ultrasound is the best way to find out if the abnormality is solid (such as a benign fibroadenoma, or cancer) or fluid-filled (such as a benign cyst). It cannot determine whether a solid lump is cancerous, nor can it detect calcifications.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Biopsy:[/FONT][FONT="] A radiologic study (mammogram, ultrasound, etc.) is not enough to establish an initial diagnosis of cancer. A diagnosis of cancer must be proven by the presence of cancer cells as seen under a microscope. This is why a biopsy—a very small operation that removes tissue from an area of concern in the body—is required to get the cells for microscopic analysis.[/FONT]
[FONT="]A biopsy helps doctors zero in on the size, type, and kind of breast cancer you may have. Biopsies are performed on any kind of abnormality that your doctor can feel or that looks suspicious. It's usually a very simple procedure. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Biopsy techniques[/FONT] [FONT="]: Various techniques are used to biopsy tissue, and it's likely that your surgeon will try to use the least invasive procedure possible. Tissue removed by the various types of biopsies described below is examined with a microscope for cancer cells.[/FONT]
Treatment: the whole breast can be treated by mastectomy or breast preservation therapy.
- mastectomy involves removal of the entire breast. Mastectomy may be followed by radiation to the area where the breast used to be.
- Breast preservation therapy removes the breast cancer by lumpectomy and is also followed by radiation to the remainder of the breast tissue.
[FONT="]Surgery: [/FONT][FONT="]For well over a century, surgery has been the first line of attack against breast cancer. But things have changed a lot in recent years. Today, the goal is precise, targeted surgery that aims to preserve as much of the healthy breast and surrounding areas as possible. Even mastectomy (breast removal) is a more refined, less drastic option than it was a generation ago.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Hormonal therapy[/FONT] [FONT="]: is a very effective treatment against breast cancer that is hormone-receptor-positive. It is sometimes called "anti-estrogen therapy," hormonal therapy blocks the ability of the hormone estrogen to turn on and stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells.[/FONT]
[FONT="]For years, tamoxifen was the hormonal medicine of choice for all women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. But in 2005, the results of several major worldwide clinical trials showed that aromatase inhibitors (anastrozole). Aromasin (exemestane), and Femara (letrozole) worked better than tamoxifen in post-menopausal women with hormone-receptive-positive breast cancer.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Aromatase inhibitors are now considered the standard of care for post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Tamoxifen remains the hormonal treatment of choice for pre-menopausal women.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Anastrozole [/FONT][FONT="](Arimidex):[/FONT][FONT="] This medication is used to treat breast cancer in women who have gone through "the change of life" (menopause). Anastrozole works by lowering estrogen hormone levels to help shrink tumors and slow their growth.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Tamoxifen [/FONT][FONT="]([/FONT][FONT="]Nolvadex):[/FONT] [FONT="] An anticancer drug, is given to treat breast cancer. It also has proved effective when cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Nolvadex is most effective in stopping the kind of breast cancer that thrives on estrogen.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Goserelin ([/FONT][FONT="]Zoladex):[/FONT] [FONT="] relieves the symptoms of advanced prostate cancer in men and advanced breast cancer in premenopausal women. In combination with other forms of therapy, it is also prescribed during treatment of early prostate cancer.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Chemotherapy[/FONT] [FONT="]: is affects the whole body by going through the bloodstream. The purpose of chemotherapy and other systemic treatments is to get rid of any cancer cells that may have spread from where the cancer started to another part of the body.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Chemotherapy is effective against cancer cells because the drugs love to interfere with rapidly dividing cells. The side effects of chemotherapy come about because cancer cells aren't the only rapidly dividing cells in your body. The cells in your blood, mouth, intestinal tract, nose, nails, vagina, and hair are also undergoing constant, rapid division. This means that the chemotherapy is going to affect them, too.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to treat cancer. Before surgery, chemotherapy may be used both to reduce the size of the breast tumor and to destroy cancer cells wherever they may be. After surgery, chemotherapy works throughout your system to kill cancer cells that may have spread throughout your body.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Chemotherapy works by stopping the growth or multiplication of cancer cells, thereby killing them. You may worry that chemotherapy will kill normal cells, too, and there is that possibility. However, remember that these drugs known as cytoxic drugs, like Azathioprine (Imuran), Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), and Methotrexate (Rheumatrex), work best on cells that divide rapidly—namely, cancer cells. This makes chemotherapy particularly effective against cancer.[/FONT]
[FONT="]When used as systemic therapy right after surgery, chemotherapy has another advantage: being in the right place at the right time. Let's say that cancer cells have broken away from the primary tumor, and that these relatively young and small clusters are now located somewhere in your body. These single cells or small clusters have plenty of nutrients and oxygen, and they are dividing quite rapidly (by contrast, with larger tumors the cells are crowded together, there isn't enough food to go around, and the cells don't have the energy to grow). This is perfect timing for chemotherapy because, remember, [FONT="]chemotherapy works best on rapidly dividing cells[/FONT][FONT="].[/FONT] And this is why cancer cells are much more sensitive to chemotherapy than normal cells.[/FONT]
[FONT="]A "cycle" of chemotherapy refers to one time or one "round" in which you go to the doctor and receive the medication. A "course" of chemotherapy refers to all the cycles in your entire treatment. Depending on the drug (or drugs) you receive, you may have anywhere from four to eight cycles of chemotherapy during an entire course.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Some chemotherapy regimens will be administered by a combination of intravenous infusion and pill form. For example, in the case of CMF, the methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil are given intravenously, while Cytoxan is usually taken as a pill with a large glass of water.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Paclitaxel[/FONT] [FONT="] belongs to a class of chemotherapy drugs called taxanes (Taxol (chemical name: paclitaxel) and Taxotere (chemical name: docetaxel) are the most widely known). Taxanes are powerful drugs that can stop cancer cells from repairing themselves and from making new cells. Studies have shown them to be effective in treating women with advanced breast cancer that does not respond to other forms of chemotherapy. For women with metastatic disease, Taxotere was more effective than Taxol in one of the only comparison studies of the two. Both taxanes are approved by the FDA for women with early-stage disease.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But taxanes cause serious side effects, including low white blood cell counts (neutropenia), weakness, and infection. They also cause extreme skin sensitivity, which can make them difficult to take.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Sides effects: [/FONT] [FONT="]cancer cells aren't the only rapidly dividing cells in your body. The cells in your blood, mouth, intestinal tract, nose, nails, vagina, and hair are also undergoing constant, rapid division. This means that the chemotherapy is going to affect them, too.[/FONT]
[FONT="]These body parts, however, have an advantage over cancer cells in that your body can repair the damage that chemotherapy does to your normal cells. This means that hair will grow back, energy levels will rise, and infections will clear up.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Hair loss: [/FONT][FONT="]Chemotherapy may make you lose your hair completely, cause it to thin, or not affect it at all. Your doctor will be able to tell you how your specific drug will affect your hair. Most people's hair will begin to grow back after the treatments are over. It's not unusual for your hair to come back in a different color or texture. And remember that hair loss can occur on all parts of the body—not just the head. Sometimes it falls out right away, sometimes after a few treatments.[/FONT]
[FONT="]There are no medications to prevent your hair from falling out during chemotherapy. You may want to be extra-gentle with hair while you are undergoing treatment—try using mild shampoos, soft brushes, and low heat for drying. [/FONT]