Everything About Breast Cancer

The major classes of breast cancer drugs are: Selective Estrogen-Receptor Modulators or SERMs, Aromatose Inhibitors, Biologic Response Modifiers, and other hormonal therapies.

SERMs work by “starving” cancer cells by preventing estrogen from reaching and feeding the cancer cells, since breast cancer cells are dependent on estrogen to reproduce. The most prescribed SERM is Tamoxifen.

Aromatose inhibitors work by preventing the production of estrogen, also starving the cancer cells. This is useful when patients become resistant to a SERM.

Biologic response modifiers prevent the growth of breast cancer cells.

Other hormonal therapies include those that destroy estrogen receptors in cancer cells, and those that blocks the release of hormone in the body.

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Doctors suggest that every woman should undergo this process whether you’re ill or not. So how is this screening process done?

Screening for breast cancer before there are symptoms can be important. Screening can help doctors find and treat cancer early. Treatment is more likely to work well when cancer is found early.

Your doctor may suggest the following screening tests for breast cancer:

• Screening mammogram
• Clinical breast exam
• Breast self-exam

You should ask your doctor about when to start and how often to check for breast cancer.

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Stereoscopic digital mammography, a new diagnostic technique capable of producing three-dimensional, in-depth views of breast tissue, could significantly reduce the number of women who are recalled for additional tests following routine screening mammography. Results of a clinical trial being conducted at Emory University Breast Clinic in Atlanta were presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Stereoscopic digital mammography consists of two digital x-ray images of the breast acquired from two different points of view separated by about eight degrees. When the images are viewed on a stereo display workstation, the radiologist is able to see the internal structure of the breast in three dimensions. In the ongoing clinical trial, researchers use a full-field digital mammography unit modified to take stereo pairs of images. The workstation enables the mammographer to fuse the stereo image pair and to view the breast in depth.

In the study, stereo mammography reduced false positives by 49%. This huge drop in percentage has strong implications with regard to needless cost in time and money.

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Women who suffer from breast cancer sometimes ask how did it happen to me? Here’s the explanation shared by Medicine Net:

Cancer begins in cells, the building blocks that make up tissues. Tissues make up the organs of the body. Normally, cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old, they die, and new cells take their place. Sometimes, this orderly process goes wrong. New cells form when the body does not need them, and old cells do not die when they should. These extra cells can form a mass of tissue called a growth or tumor. When breast cancer cells spread, the cancer cells are often found in lymph nodes near the breast. Also, breast cancer can spread to almost any other part of the body. The most common are the bones, liver, lungs, and brain. The new tumor has the same kind of abnormal cells and the same name as the primary tumor. For example, if breast cancer spreads to the bones, the cancer cells in the bones are actually breast cancer cells. The disease is metastatic breast cancer, not bone cancer. For that reason, it is treated as breast cancer, not bone cancer. Doctors call the new tumor “distant” or metastatic disease.

Breast cancer remains to be the leading culprit among women. Second only to Lung cancer, Breast cancer is the next most notorious serial killer in the world. Ironically, breast cancer is more inclined to affect women who are part of the western world than anyone else in less developed nations. This is probably because of the “instant” life style Westerners have gotten used to. Men are not exempted from the claws of breast cancer. This is because they have breasts too. They are however, 90% less likely to catch the disease but when they do, their chances at survival are no less precarious than that of the women. The idea behind breast cancer is to have it detected early so that it can be cured just as early.

A study of 2400 post-menopausal women who have had breast cancer shows that a low-fat diet may help prevent the cancer from coming back.

The rate of recurrence after five years for the women who was put on a low-fat diet was 9.8%, while the rate for those ate a standard diet was 12.4%.

The most significant risk reduction — 42 percent — was with women on the low-fat diet whose tumors did not respond to the presence of the hormone estrogen (also called estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer). Women whose tumors did respond to estrogen saw a 15 percent reduction.

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Regular breast self-exams (BSEs) have been key to early detection of breast cancers. Breastcancer.org advocates this 5-step BSE:

Step 1: Look at your breasts in the mirror with your shoulders straight and your arms on your hips. If you see any of the following changes, bring them to your doctor’s attention:

* dimpling, puckering, or bulging of the skin
* a nipple that has changed position or an inverted nipple (pushed inward instead of sticking out)
* redness, soreness, rash, or swelling

Step 2: Now, raise your arms and look for the same changes. Continue reading…

A lot of breast cancer patients never had children. Having children at a younger age, having more children and breastfeeding have been associated with lower risk of having breast cancer. “What is not used gets damaged” is a common belief, and that belief has extended to cancer risk.

Other more practical ways to prevent breast cancer (as having children is not always an option) is a healthy lifestyle coupled with regular exercise. Taking plant-based estrogen foods like soy products does not cause or worsen breast cancer. Avoiding second hand smoke will save you from a lot of other cancers as well. The most important is regular physical check up that includes procedures for detecting breast cancer like mammography, for early detection.

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Ironically, breast cancer is more inclined to affect women in the first world than anyone else in less developed nations, probably because the “instant” life style is less popular among third world countries. Latest statistic shows the number of fatalities induced breast cancer: in Eastern Asia, 18; South Central Asia, 22; sub-Saharan Africa, 22; South-Eastern Asia, 26; North Africa and Western Asia, 28; South and Central America, 42; Eastern Europe, 49; Southern Europe, 56; Northern Europe, 73; Oceania, 74; Western Europe, 78; and in North America. The study was done per 100,000 set of the women population. As you can see, there is a tremendous difference in fatalities between poor and richer continents.