Understanding Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer occurs when some cells in your breast grow out of control. It’s in the top 3 of cancers for women and is one of the leading causes of female mortality in early middle age, although survival rates are increasing every year.
All the publicity and campaigns have raised the profile of breast cancer and women are very aware of the risks. Survival rates improve every year and the earlier the cancer is found higher the cure rate. Men get breast cancer as well but it is 100 times less common.
Breast Cancer Incidence
Breast cancer rates have increased by more than 50% over the last twenty years. The highest rates of breast cancer occur in Northern Europe and North America and the lowest rates are in parts of Africa and Asia. The good news is thanks to better diagnosis and treatment survival rates are improving.
Death rates have been dropping steadily since 1990 and one of the keys to this is early diagnosis. Indeed medical experts attribute the decline in breast cancer deaths to both this and more effective treatments.
Breast Cancer Treatment
The treatment you will get depends on the type of cancer and if it has gone out of your breast elsewhere in your body. How far, if at all, the cancer has spread is called staging. Stage 0 means the cancer is just in the breast and stage 4 means it is spread through your body. What combination of treatment you receive depends on the stage and is the same for males and females.
Treatment options for breast cancer include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone treatment and biological therapy with drugs such as Herceptin. Treatment takes place in two forms, which are local and systemic.
Local treatments are surgery and radiotherapy purely round the breast. Systemic treatments affect the whole body. So chemotherapy, hormone and biological therapy are systemic treatments. Treatment for breast cancer is not a smooth road, and there are days when the cure feels worse than the disease.
Surviving Breast Cancer
More women conquer and beat cancer each year. With earlier diagnosis and smaller spread of cancer survival rates are high. Individuals are all different however and there are lots of examples of women with more advanced cancer beating it and living long lives. Males and females have broadly the same chances of beating the disease.
The number of cases worldwide of breast cancer is rising and it affects all strata of society. Being told you have breast cancer is stunning but the sooner it is found and treatment begun the better the chance of cure.
A diagnosis of breast cancer is not a death sentence but a huge challenge, which can be beaten. As many breast cancers have a genetic link other family members may receive counselling if needed.
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