What is it? The breasts or breasts are composed of fat, connective and glandular. In this tissue are the milk producing glands which are born 15 or 20 mammary ducts, to carry milk to the nipple, surrounded by the areola. These lobules and ducts are located in the stroma, adipose tissue, which are also blood vessels and lymphatics. The breast tissues are connected also with a group of lymph nodes, located in the armpit. These nodes are key to the diagnosis of breast cancer, since cancer cells spread to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system. When speaking of sentinel node refers precisely to the node nearest to the place where cancer is located.
Symptoms
Various studies have found a cluster of risk factors, or circumstances that make a person more likely to develop the tumor.
Age: Risk increases with age. Most breast cancers occur over 50 years, at 60 the risk is higher and it is very rare below age 35, although it is possible.
Sex: women are more likely to develop breast cancer. Men can also suffer, but the probability is one for every hundred women.
Family history: the chances are increased if a sister, mother or daughter has suffered from this disease. Furthermore, this risk rises if the family has had cancer has done before menopause, or has affected both breasts.
Having suffered another cancer: the risk of breast cancer increases if you have previously experienced a second cancer, particularly ovarian or colon cancer or lobular or ductal carcinoma in situ (two types of malignant tumors that arise in the lobules or the ducts lactiferous breasts or milk ducts). Another possible risk factor is a benign, a kind of non-malignant tumor, which alters the breast tissue.
Late menopause (after age 55)
Not having children, or first childbirth after age 30.
Environmental factors: it is investigating the possible influence of pesticides, electromagnetic fields or contaminants in food and water.
Lifestyle: some research has found a possible link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer development.
Obesity: In spite of having no definitive scientific finding, many researchers suggest that a diet low in fat and rich in fruits and vegetables and physical exercise regularly can help prevent the onset of breast cancer.
Stress: An active lifestyle to excessive limits is neither convenient nor beneficial. Leading a stressful lifestyle is harmful to health and, consequently, may promote the development of disease
THS: Some researchers suggest that after 10 years with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may increase cancer risk, while others emphasize that no matter how long it has taken in the past, since the risk of cancer, between hormone therapy still not among the ones that followed in the past.
PreventionThe self-examination and mammograms are the most useful tools for finding suspicious breast lumps. In general, the technique of mammography facilitates the detection of small lumps difficult to predict by palpation of the breast. This type of test should be repeated annually from age 45.
TypesNot all packages that appear on the breasts are a symptom of cancer. In fact, nine out of ten lumps are benign. These noncancerous lumps or tumors can be fibrosis and glandular connective tissue, or cysts or fluid-filled sacs. Benign breast tumors (fibroadenomas) are not a danger to life and are usually easily treated. The main type of breast cancer is adenocarcinoma, which occurs in glandular tissues anywhere in the body. The specific tumors of the breast are:
Ductal carcinoma
(located in the ducts). The ductal in situ carcicoma falls on or lactiferous ducts through which milk goes to the nipple. If left untreated, can spread beyond the milk ducts and cause metastasis. So it's very important to detect its presence in time to prevent progression to cancer. This detection can be achieved only through specific tests such as mammography, since carcinoma in situ does not usually produce any symptoms. Invasive ductal carcinoma, or infiltrating invades the fatty tissue of the breast, from one of the ducts. Invasive carcinoma is the most common breast cancers, accounting for approximately 80 percent of all those produced.
Lobular carcinoma or lobular
. Within this type is lobular carcinoma in situ, also called lobular neoplasia. Invasive lobular carcinoma is the same filtration process that invasive ductal carcinoma to adipose tissue, but from the lobules.
Inflammatory Breast Cancer
: Less frequent. This is a very aggressive cancer that grows quickly. It's called inflammatory because cancer cells block the lymph vessels and this is manifested in the skin, which becomes thick and hollowed out appearance similar to that of an orange peel.
Other types
also rare for breast cancer include mucinous or colloid, in which cancer cells produce some mucus, and medullary, invasive tumor, but with a better prognosis than other invasive cancers.
Cancer Paget
spreads through the skin of the nipple and areola. In this type of cancer, the skin of the nipple and areola appears scaly and red, with occasional spotting. Occasionally, Paget's disease may be associated with carcinoma in situ or invasive.
DiagnosticsMammography is a test of X-ray imaging that detects the presence of tumor in the breast, before it is perceptible to the touch. By being the best method of detection, experts recommend that all women perform this test every year, from the 50-55 years. These tests can be supplemented with more specific, to detect cancer severity, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasonography, or biopsy, which takes part of the affected tissue in the laboratory to analyze the characteristics of the cancer cells.
TreatmentsThere are several types of treatment for use in breast cancer. The therapy is applied depends on many factors, which include the stage or stage where the tumor is, whether there is metastasis, the size of the cancer and how cancer cells are. With the classification made by doctors are set to tumor size, lymph nodes affected and the degree of metastasis or spread to other organs, if any. The most used is the TNM system, developed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer. Each letter refers to a characteristic, which is defined by a number:
T (size), followed by a number from 0 to 4, refers to tumor size, the larger the cancer, the higher the number.
N (nodes) of 0 to 3, refers to the lymph nodes are affected by the cancer cells.
M (metastasis) followed by a 0 or 1 indicates whether the cancer has spread (1) or not (0) to other organs.
In the early stages of cancer, surgery is used to remove the tumor, but often the surgical approach is complemented by radiation therapy to kill tumor cells that have not escaped the knife. If the cancer is spread in other parts of the body, is used as chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Here also accommodate the administration of radiotherapy, in specific areas are located groups of cancer cells.
Surgery. The type of surgery depends on the extent of the tumor. If the size of the tumor allows the surgeon to perform a lumpectomy, which involves removing part of the breast tissue. With a mastectomy, however, the breast is removed completely. Both interventions may require the elimination of the nearest lymph nodes (located in the armpit).
Radiotherapy. It is a local treatment, like surgery. In fact, sometimes radiation therapy after surgery to kill cancer cells that have not been removed. Radiation therapy is a high concentration of X-rays directed at a specific point. In applying this after removing a cancer treatment, doctors are sure to completely eradicate the tumor.
Chemotherapy. Along with hormone therapy are the most widely used treatments for breast cancer. Hormone treatments stop pursuing cancer progression, altering the levels of female hormones. In contrast, chemotherapy eradicates cancer cells, destroying them. These are the main families of chemotherapeutic agents used against breast cancer:
- Alkylating They act on DNA by preventing the cancer cell from reproducing. This family includes busulfan, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, dacarbazine, ifosfamide, mechlorethamine and melphalan.
- Antimetabolites: interfere with the growth of cellular DNA and RNA. They are in this group: 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, gemcitabine, cytarabine and fludarabine.
- Antitumor Antibiotics: acting in DNA stop the action of certain enzymes responsible for mitosis (division by which cells reproduce.) These include bleomycin, dactinomycin, daunorubicin, doxorubicin and idarubicin.
- Inhibitors of mitosis: they are naturally occurring substances that inhibit mitosis (cell reproduction formula). These inhibitors include paclitaxel, docetaxel, etoposide, vinblastine, vincristine and vinorelbine. Chemotherapy is usually given intravenously, but sometimes they can be oral chemotherapy or intramuscularly. Normally it is one to four weeks between administration and other chemo. These cycles or courses are set by the oncologist with the degree of disease tolerance and side effects of chemotherapy.
Hormone therapy:
Tamoxifen, hormonal therapy is used more often in breast cancer. This drug prevents the release of estrogen, so that cells affected by cancer do not continue to spread.
Toremifene: like tamoxifen, is an estrogen receptor modulator and seems to have demonstrated efficacy in treating certain types of breast cancer.
Progestogens: These hormones are produced naturally in the body of women, but its artificial derivatives can be useful in certain breast tumors. Together with the progestin hormone therapy may be other aromatase, the análagos of LHRH and somatostatin, the latter commonly used among patients postmenospáusicas.
Other informationSide Effects of Treatment
Nausea and vomiting may be required to avoid anti-nausea medications (against vomiting). The doctor will tell you not only to be taken before the chemo, but also those who have to take at home. Try to drink plenty of fluids, it is useful against nausea. Iran forwarding when passing a few days after treatment.
Hair loss: despite not being a serious effect is a cause of distress and dissatisfaction for most patients because they influence the perception of their own image. Usually, hair loss begins at two or three weeks of the first cycle of therapy, refers to the end of treatment and the hair grows back to its normal speed.
Irritation of the mouth with chemotherapy are frequent mucosistis or oral irritations. It is a condition more annoying than worrisome because it produces burning in the mouth. To reduce this disturbance advises use of oral hygiene and toothbrushes with soft bristles that will not damage the gums. Antiseptic rinses also help.
Anemia: One of the most important side effects of chemotherapy is to reduce the amount of red blood cells. The anemia is manifested by fatigue, weakness and extreme pallor. Sometimes it may require a blood transfusion. Thrombocytopenia may also occur or excessive decrease in platelets (blood cells that clot the blood in case of injury). This effect produces an increase in bruising (bruises) or bleeding gums and nose.
Neutropenia: another effect is most watched by doctors due to gravity. It includes a reduction in white blood cells or leukocytes (cells that defend us from the intrusion of pathogens such as viruses or bacteria). Neutropenia favors the onset of infection (fever, urinary tract infection, sore throat). Breast cancer in men One in 100 breast cancer cases occur in a male.
Although the frequency is lower than among women, men suffering from breast cancer usually have a worse prognosis. This difference is not because the breast tumor in men is a worst kind, but simply because it is diagnosed much later than for women primarily by misinformation.
The risk that a man developing breast cancer increases if you have had someone in their immediate family and also if you have suffered from Klinefelter's syndrome, a disorder for which there is no testosterone. Other risk factors include having had testicular disease or be overweight. The treatments you receive a male affected by this tumor are the same as those applied to women.