Steven Panzullo asked:




We all have seen television reports, read in the newspaper or on the internet about people with breast cancer and new treatment options or new marathons that help support a cure. We may even know of a loved one or friend that has or had breast cancer. The truth is, it is scary, but there are ways to help lower your risk now before it is too late. Here are some of those tips to help you get started. This way you can worry less and enjoy life more.

It is recommended to be as lean as possible without being underweight. Studies have shown that women on the lower end of the weight scale are more protected against breast cancer than those who are not. It is also important to limit or stop drinking alcohol because this lowers your risk. It is best to also exercise for at least thirty minutes a day, but some activity is better than none, so stay active.

New studies also now show that those that were breast-fed for up to six months can help lower a child’s risk of obesity and lower the risk of developing breast cancer. If breast cancer runs in your family, it is also a good idea to have routine MRI or breast screenings performed. These tests are more likely to detect a tumor than other types of tests. Although, sometimes the tumors can come up as noncancerous or hazardous to your health. Your doctor may also recommend early screenings for those whose mothers had cancer. Another test that may be recommended early is regular mammograms because they can help lower your risk by thirty percent.

Breast cancer may be really scary, especially for those people who have seen loved ones and friends go through it. They know the stories and they may realize their risk. It is very important to try your best to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle to help lower your risk now rather than later in life. It is important to try and prevent as many health problems as possible, so they are not problems later. This way we can have peace of mind, worry less, and just live our lives to the absolute fullest.

JNJhealth asked:

A woman discovers she has breast cancer and frankly discusses her thoughts about treatment options.

Charlene Nuble asked:




You must accept the fact that not all patients who undergo breast cancer treatments are able to survive. It is but natural for you to want to know about the breast cancer survival rate before you decide to go for a particular treatment.

Survival rates differ and it would depend on the stage of the cancer you’re currently in. What is this rate all about?

You can describe the survival rate in several ways such as:

1. Time – upon diagnosis, a patient is given 5-10 years to survive

2. Recurrence – there are times when recurrence take place after the cancer cells have been removed

3. Death risk as compared to other people with the same health condition

Survival rate is usually categorized based on the breast cancer stages. Stage ‘0′ means that the cancer is still non-invasive. The cancerous cells can only be found in the walls of the lump or mass inside the breast.

When you reach Stage 1, the tumor has already grown about 2 cm long and it is already considered invasive. Stage 2A happens when the tumor is already 2 to 5 cm long.

The Stage 2B refers to tumors more or less 2 cm long but some of the auxiliary lymph nodes are already affected. When the tumor reaches above 5 cm and has already affected the lymph nodes, it is already classified as Stage 3A breast cancer; and when the tumor invades the skin of the breasts, the cancer is in Stage 3B. The advanced breast cancer is classified under Stage 4 wherein other organs of the body are already infected with the cancer cells.

The different stages can also be divided into the early stage (0 to 2A), the later stage (2B to 3A and B), and the advanced stage (stage 4). The treatment plan is generally based on the stage of the breast cancer.

Today, the survival rates for breast cancer are 86% (for the 5-year period after diagnosis) and 76% (for the 10-year period).

Breast cancer patients without metastatic has a rate of survival of 96% while those with metastatic has a rate of 21%. The percentage is based on the 5-year period after diagnosis.

There are also established survival rates for each stage of breast cancer within the 5-year period. The following are the rates: Stage 0 – 100%, Stage 1 is 100%, Stage 2A is 92%, Stage 2B is 81%, Stage 3A is 67%, Stage 3B is 54%, and Stage 4 is 20%.

As you can see, if you’re still in the 0 and first stage, you have a 100% chance to recover from the disease. It is therefore very important to detect breast cancer during these stages. Besides, the medications used for the early stages are more affordable as compared to the medications or treatments given to the late stages.

Now, aside from the stages of breast cancer, the survival rate is also affected by other factors like lifestyle, exercise, psychological therapy, and smoking. Did you know that some breast cancer patients are able to live longer because they made changes in their lifestyle?

If you want to determine if you have breast cancer or if this disease runs in the family, it would be best to undergo a mammogram or you can also conduct self examinations. This is one way of discovering mass or lumps in your breast. The breast cancer survival rate is quite high but you’ll need to detect the cancer at an early stage.

Wyatt Schell asked:




Inflammatory breast cancer is the most aggressive of all these cancers in which a tumor of any size has spread to the breast skin, chest wall, or internal mammary lymph nodes (located beneath the breast right under the ribs, inside the middle of the chest). This is a very uncommon but very serious, aggressive type of cancer.

The most distinguishing feature of this cancer is redness involving part or all of the breast. The redness feels warm. You may see puffiness of the breast’s skin that looks like the peel of a navel orange (“peau d’orange”), or even ridges, welts, or hives caused by a buildup of fluid and edema (swelling) in the breast.. And part or all of the breast may be enlarged and hard. A lump is present only half of the time. This cancer is sometimes misdiagnosed as a simple infection.

Inflammatory breast cancer, although rare, is called “inflammatory” because the breast often looks swollen and red, or “inflamed.” This cancer accounts for 1 to 5 percent of all cancer cases in the United States. It tends to be diagnosed in younger women compared to non-inflammatory breast cancer. It occurs more frequently and at a younger age in African Americans than in Whites.

Like other types of cancer, inflammatory breast cancer can also occur in men, but usually at an older age than in women. Other symptoms include heaviness, burning, aching, increase in breast size, tenderness, or a nipple that is inverted (facing inward). These symptoms usually develop quickly-over a period of weeks or months. However, it is important to note that these symptoms may also be signs of other conditions such as infection, injury, or other types of cancer.

Diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer is based primarily on the results of a doctor’s clinical examination . Biopsy, mammogram, and breast ultrasound are used to confirm the diagnosis. This cancer is classified as either stage IIIB or stage IV . Stage IIIB cancers are locally advanced; stage IV cancer is cancer that has spread to other organs. Inflammatory breast cancer tends to grow rapidly, and the physical appearance of the breast of patients with this cancer is different from that of patients with other stage III cancers.

Prognosis describes the likely course and outcome of a disease – that is, the chance that a patient will recover or have a recurrence. Inflammatory breast cancer is more likely to have metastasized (spread to other areas of the body) at the time of diagnosis than non-inflammatory cancer cases.

As a result, the 5-year survival rate for patients with this cancer is between 25 and 50 percent, which is significantly lower than the survival rate for patients with non-inflammatory. It is important to keep in mind, however, that these statistics are averages based on large numbers of patients. Statistics cannot be used to predict what will happen to a particular patient because each person’s situation is unique.

MC Ezzia asked:




Surgery is typically the first line of assault against breast cancer. This part makes clear the various types of surgery.

As a woman with early-stage breast cancer (DCIS or Stage I, IIA, IIB, or IIIA) you might be able to decide which type of breast surgery to have. Frequently, your selection is between breast-sparing surgery (surgery that removes the cancer and leaves most of the breast) and a mastectomy (surgery that gets rid of the whole breast). Examination demonstrates that women with early-stage breast cancer who have breast-sparing surgery together with radiation therapy live as long as those who have a mastectomy. The majority women with the disease will lead long, healthy lives subsequent to treatment.

Treatment for breast cancer typically starts some weeks following diagnosis. In these weeks, you ought to meet with a surgeon, learn the details regarding your surgery options, and consider what is significant to you. Afterward decide which type of surgery to have.

Women with breast cancer have lots of treatment choices. These consist of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and biological therapy. These alternatives are explained below. But lots of women accept more than one kind of treatment.

Cancer treatment is either local therapy or systemic therapy:

- Local therapy: Surgery and radiation therapy are local treatments. They take out or obliterate cancer in the breast. When breast cancer has extended to other areas of the body, local therapy might be utilized to manage the disease in those certain parts.

- Systemic therapy: Chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and biological therapy are systemic treatments. They come into the bloodstream and obliterate or manage cancer all through the body. A number of women with breast cancer have systemic therapy to shrink the tumor prior to surgery or radiation. Others have systemic therapy following surgery and/or radiation to put off the cancer from returning. Systemic treatments are employed for cancer that has extended too.

Judgments in relation to surgery rely on several factors. You and your doctor will settle on the type of surgery that’s most suitable for you based on the stage of the cancer, the “personality” of the cancer, and what is satisfactory to you in terms of your long-term peace of mind.

However, there are some types of breast surgery. Your physician could give details the benefits and risks of each type, besides to answering some questions or concerns you might have before surgery.

bringsammyhome07 asked:

Divine is a 31 year old diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and is battling to bring her husband home.

fingertight01 asked:

This vid contains vital information about a kind of breast cancer that is not easy to spot. Please watch and pass the word it could save a life.

Melissa Buhmeyer asked:




Your team of doctors will make treatment recommendations based on the stage of your cancer. Your standard treatment options may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy. If you have been diagnosed with DCIS or LCIS, your stage is the lowest and the road you will travel will be easier. For DCIS, your options may include breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy with or without radiation and hormone therapy.

LCIS treatments options are a bit different. They include observation to determine changes, hormone therapy to prevent cancer from developing, or bilateral prophylactic (preventive) mastectomies.

Things get more complicated when your cancer spreads beyond the ducts or lobes/lobules. Once your cancer has been staged, you can visit http://www.cancer.gov to determine your treatment options. They will typically include: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and/or hormone therapy. For IBC, treatment options are similar to the other types of breast cancer, but they will always include chemotherapy because of its aggressiveness.

o Surgery: Breast surgery can be either a lumpectomy, where the tumor is removed, or a partial or modified radical mastectomy. With a lumpectomy, it is typically followed by radiation. This way, you get to keep your breast and studies have shown no difference in survival rates between lumpectomy/radiation and mastectomy.

Note: Not too long ago, they used to perform radical mastectomies where the breast, all the lymph nodes, and the underlying muscle were cut away. Thankfully, medicine has discovered that’s not necessary. Now, a partial or modified radical mastectomy is performed, where either part of the breast tissue, or the entire breast, and possibly a portion of the lymph nodes, are removed. On the whole, a mastectomy isn’t too bad a surgery, although everyone is different. I found both of mine to be quite easy, but you will wake up with drain tubes, which you’ll typically have for at least a week.

o Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is defined by Wikipedia as “the use of chemical substances to treat disease. In its modern-day use, it refers primarily to cytotoxic drugs used to treat cancer.” This can be a frightening prospect for anyone. We’ve all heard horror stories about how very debilitating chemotherapy can be. However, much progress has been made in the management of chemo’s side effects, to the point that, once you have the right management tools, you can continue to enjoy the activities you typically do. Chemo is a means of treating your cancer systemically and is typically recommended for those whose tumor is larger than a certain size and/or the cancer has spread to your lymph nodes. The thinking is that if your cancer has had the opportunity to access the rest of your body, your treatment should be systemic as well.

o Radiation: Radiation therapy is typically a localized treatment option, where rapidly dividing cells are damaged. Cancer cells are very rapid dividers, so radiation is an effective option. Typically, radiation therapy is given for about six weeks, five days a week. It’s very much like lying still for an x-ray, only instead of lasting a second or two, it lasts a couple of minutes. It can cause fatigue, toward the end and slightly after, and can cause a sunburn effect on your skin.

o Hormone Therapy: Many breast cancers are hormone-dependent. In these cancers, there are receptors on the tumor that can be filled with estrogen. The thinking is that when estrogen fills these receptors, it causes the tumor to grow. This is called estrogen-receptor positive (ER). These cancers respond well to hormone therapy and the hormone therapy drug that will be recommended for you will depend on your menopausal status. These drugs are in pill form and you take them once a day. The most popular of these drugs, for pre-menopausal women, is Tamoxifen and, for post-menopausal women Femara or Arimidex. There is new evidence that suggests that taking Femara, after taking Tamoxifen for five years, increases survival rates.

o Immunotherapy: There is a fourth modality of treatment on the horizon and it’s called Immunotherapy. This involves getting your immune system to fight your cancer and there is, and will be, a lot of research being done in this area.

Michael Russell asked:




The most common type of breast cancer in women that is noninvasive is referred to as DCIS, which stands for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. The term “in situ” refers to cancer cells that have not moved out of the system in which they began to grow. With DCIS the cancer cells develop in a milk duct in the breast and are found before they have a chance outside of the duct. DCIS is the noninvasive version of Ductal Carcinoma and is usually discovered during the course of a regular mammography because it can show up as specks of calcifications. If these specks appear, then the next step is a biopsy.

Ductal Carcinoma In Situ is referred to as a Stage 0 cancer, but it is taken very seriously by doctors. Treatment for DCIS is usually much more aggressive than it’s in situ cousin, LCIS (or lobular neoplasia). Even though it is a serious condition, there is plenty of time to educate yourself and weigh all your options concerning treatment and possible reconstruction. There is close to a 100% rate of success in treating DCIS with the standard medical treatment.

DCIS usually appears in two different forms, which describe how the cancer looks on pathological examination under a microscope. The comedo type will express dead cells out of it, much like a pimple or zit on the skin, hence the name comedo.

The non-comedo DCIS types are 1) solid where the DCIS cells fill in the milk duct all the way, 2) cribiform DCIS where the cells do NOT completely fill in the duct, in fact there will be some areas of empty space between the cancer cells and 3) papillary and micropapillary DCIS in which the cells are sparse, like cribiform, but have a pattern to them.

The comedo type is considered to be more aggressive than that of the non-comedo types. By looking under a microscope, a pathologist can tell the difference between the two based on the number of dead, or necrotic, cells in the middle of the milk duct. Have large amounts of dead cells in a cancerous area means that the cancer can be faster growing.

Even though DCIS is considered to be a pre-cancer or Stage 0, the treatment options are very similar to invasive ductal carcinoma. Depending on where the area of DCIS is located and how many areas there are, a patient will have a choice between a lumpectomy and mastectomy. As with Stage 1 and higher cancers, further treatment will be decided based on the size of the area or tumor, the pathologic grade, HER2 status, lymph node involvement and the hormonal status. Family history and other related risk factors should also be taken into consideration when deciding on treatment options.

While a diagnosis of DCIS can be frightening, it is certainly a very treatable condition. Fortunately by catching the cancer before it has broken out of the ductal system and made its way into the fatty breast tissue or lymph system, the chance that the disease has spread is very very small.

Rizvana Abdul asked:




Millions of women around the world are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Being diagnosed with this type of cancer can be one of the most difficult times in the life of a woman. Fortunately, with advances in medical science, the disease is perfectly treatable successfully. There are thousands of instances of women, who have survived this dreaded cancer and come out winners in life.

The treatment procedure for breast cancer usually varies from person to person based on the stage of cancer. A thorough diagnosis is first needed in order to confirm and then specify the stage of the cancer. A qualified oncologist is the best person to consult in case you feel that you have any of the symptoms of this cancer.

Lumpectomy is the name of the surgery that is used for removal of just the lump. This is the procedure that is followed in a vast majority of cases. There could be cases, when the removal of the entire breast may sometimes become necessary. This is known as mastectomy and is one of the prescribed treatment options for this type of cancer.

The treatment for breast cancer usually does not stop with surgery. It is followed by radiation therapy. This therapy is used in order to ensure that the cancer does not relapse. The technology involved in radiation therapy consists of targeting the tumor area with gamma rays. The radiation helps in eliminating traces of cancer cells that may have been left behind even after the surgery in the area.

Based on the stage and type of breast cancer, chemotherapy is another treatment procedure that is often prescribed. Chemotherapy can be used before or after surgery. It is also sometimes used as an alternative to surgery too. In several cases, hormonal treatment is also prescribed after chemotherapy too.

Rapid advances in medical science have meant that there are now more advanced methods of treating the cancer that are being found effective. Targeted therapy is one such treatment method where specially designed antibodies are used to slow down the process of growth of cancer cells. This therapy is usually used along with chemotherapy. The combination has been instrumental in improving the survival rate in several cases.

Plenty of research is currently being done in various parts of the world in order to find a cure for breast cancer. With more insights into the disease emerging and with better technology, time is not far away when a better treatment or even perfect cure for breast cancer or for that matter all cancers are found out.