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Treatment for breast cancer essay
Essay on prevention and treatment of breast cancer
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Symptoms and Treatment of Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women and has the highest fatality rate of all cancers affecting this sex. It is the leading cause of death among women aged 35-54. In 1999 an estimated 175,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. That is one woman every three minutes. At the same time 43,000 will die, at the rate of one every two minutes. The incidence of men diagnosed with breast cancer is rare, however it does occur. Approximately 1,300 men a year are diagnosed, and 400 die annually due to the disease. A total of 75% of all breast cancers occur in women with no known risk factors. 80% of breast cancers occur in women aged 50 and up. The mortality rate would decrease if every woman over 50 was informed and followed guidelines. When confined to the breast, the survival rate is 95%. Studies have shown that more white women than black women get breast cancer, however more black women die of breast cancer because they are not diagnosed at an early stage.
Most breast cancers appear as a slowly growing, painless mass, though a vague discomfort may be present. Physical signs include a retracted nipple, bleeding from the nipple, distorted areola or breast contour, skin dimpling over the lesion, attachment of the mass to surrounding tissues including the underlying fascia and overlying skin, and enlarged lymph nodes. In most advanced stages of the disease the skin nodules with ultimate breakdown and ulcer formation may be seen. Metastases should be sought immediately so that further spread will not be a factor. Among the common sites of metastases are the lungs and pleura, the skeleton (specifically the spine, pelvis, and skull), and the liver. Whenever possible, distan...
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...reatest use in palliation of symptoms or in delaying the advancement of breast cancer. It is most often combined with radiotherapy when cancer recurs following a mastectomy and when the tumour is so advanced that surgery is not indicated or is palliative. Chemotherapy Chemotherapy is useful in patients that have a high risk of developing recurrent cancer after a mastectomy.. Chemotherapy is used in the management of patients with recurrent breast cancer usually after the failure of previous hormonal manipulations. A variety of chemotherapeutic agents are used in various combinations, sometimes with a corticosteroid to suppress endogenous adrenal function or with the estrogen antagonist tamoxifen. The agents in chemotherapy have demonstrated value in halting or delaying the appearance of metastases, especially in premenopausal patients, and in treating recurrences.
Cancer is a disease in which cells multiply out of control and gradually build a mass of tissue called a tumor. There has been a large amount of research dedicated to the treatment and cure of cancer. Several types of treatments have been developed. The following are just some of the major examples of cancer therapy: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biologic therapy, biorhythms, unconventional treatments, and hyperthermia. Each type of treatment is discussed in detail below.
Breast cancer is most commonly diagnosed in Stage I and Stage II, where the size of the tumor is less than five centimeters in diameter. In these situations, surgery is often the second treatment option after chemotherapy and radiation therapy, both of which are used to shrink the tumor to a manageable size first. If the patient chooses to, the ...
Tang, S. -., Parker, H., Winterbottom, L., Hassell, K., Ellis, I. O., Morgan, D. A. L., & Cheung, K. L. (2011). Early primary breast cancer in the elderly - pattern of presentation and treatment. Surgical Oncology, 20(1), 7-12. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.suronc.2009.07.004
... other treatments, like surgery or radiation, to kill any leftover cells that are still in the body. Chemo can also be used in the form of neoadjuvant therapy to shrink tumors to prepare for other forms of treatment, or in the form of palliative therapy to relieve pain. Today, doctors are using chemotherapy for other diseases besides cancer, such as bone marrow diseases and immune system disorders.
For cancer patients there are several treatment options. Surgery can remove cancerous tumors, chemotherapy uses drugs for treatment, and radiation therapy. The doctor in charge of the patient’s treatment may also choose to use radiation therapy. “Radiation
Some risk factors cannot be changed such as age, race, and gender. A person 's risk increases as they get older. Approximately 1 out of 8 women are at risk of developing breast cancer are younger than 55. Approximately 2 out of 3 women are at risk of developing breast cancer who are older than 55 (American Cancer Society, 2014). To decrease this rate, women need more timely follow ups and access to high quality treatments (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Men can develop breast cancer, but this disease is more common among women than men. (American Cancer Society, 2015).
Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals to cure cancer. Chemotherapy is also known as “chemo”. The term for chemo came from the German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich around the year 1900. He came up with the term when he was examining aniline dyes and arsenicals as possible treatments for diseases such as syphilis. He envisioned “magic bullets” that would be able to target invading organisms but still leave the host unscathed. This goal has been providing therapeutic benefits without many side effects in all areas of drug development. There has been a lot of success with compounds that modulate normal biochemistry within the body.
Of the few people that know what breast cancer is some of them just believe that it is a lump. They do not know that there is a process to breast cancer they do not know that the tumor comes from somewhere and does not magically appear. Breast cancer can happen a few different ways in the breast, but “the most common type of breast cancer is ductal carcinoma” (cancer.gov). This type of breast cancer begins in the lining of the milk ducts. The ducts are the tubes that carry the milk from the lobules to the nipple. Think of them as little veins running from the nipple to a little pouch. Another place that the cancer could start is...
There are many different approaches for management of breast cancer and treatment options that patients may select in collaboration with health care providers. Breast cancer is a complex disease that presents in many different types, with specific biological features unique to each patient. Invasive cancers are classified based on tumor type and histological grade, which is of utmost importance when deciding the course of treatment. Contemporary advances in breast cancer treatments have been made, especially in chemotherapy, hormone and biological therapies. Treatment can be a combination of local treatments, systemic treatments, and in some cases, new targeted treatments (Watts, 2013).
Today in the United States, Breast Cancer occurs in about one in eight women which is currently the most common cancer among women. The number of cases is expected to decrease due to the advancements in technology and dedicated researchers. Scientists have put an estimated 4.8 billion dollars towards the research every year to help find a cure or a new treatment for breast cancer ("STAT Facts Breast Cancer"). Researchers have found causes, put in research and theories that help with understanding treatments, prevention and also common symptoms and coping mechanisms.
Breast Cancer is defined as “a group of solid tumor malignancies arising in the tissues of the breast” (Sarah Crawford, Richard Alder, 2013) in human and other mammals. It can happen to both men and women. For women, breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death. According to National Cancer Institute, in the United States, the 2014 estimated new cases and deaths of female from breast cancer are 232,670 and 40,000, respectively. For male, it’s 430 deaths out of 2,360 new cases. From these numbers, we can see that women in the U.S. are greatly affected by breast cancer, thus, it’s not difficult to imagine the impact on a worldwide level. Although these numbers look frightening, people can actually survive from breast cancer if it is detected early and treated properly, so it is extremely important for all of us, especially women, to have a better understanding of breast cancer.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world (Breast). Every three minutes a woman is diagnosed: one in eight women will have breast cancer (Walgreens, 2011; Chen, 2010). “I have to admit, like so many women, I always knew there was a chance. But like so many women, I never thought it would be me. I never thought I'd hear those devastating words: 'You have breast cancer.' “- Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a democratic representative of Florida (2011).
Breast cancer I often caused by inheritance. A mutated gene for breast cancer is passed down to other generations. This makes a person for likely to acquire breast cancer. Some breast cancer is caused by acquired mutations to the breast tissue from radiation, or cancer-causing chemicals. The most common treatment for breast cancer is surgery. This is the removal of partial, or all of the affected breast. This can seem like drastic measures for most women because they are having a part of them that makes them women taken away. Therefore, other forms of treatment include, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and bone-directed therapy.
Zieve, David. "Breast Cancer." National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. Web. 06 May 2010. http://nlm.nih.gov
As defined by Majure, breast cancer is an “uncontrolled growth of abnormal breast cells” (Majure: 110). It is also one of the cancers that women fear the most. Not only do women get diagnosed with breast cancer, men do too. However, it isn't as bad, or as common, in men as it is in women so doctors don’t recommend screening for men. In the U.S more than one thousand men get affected by breast cancer every year and about two hundred thousand women are affected by breast cancer every year. Women are most likely to get diagnosed with it in their forties and fifties while some may be diagnosed with breast cancer in their twenties, if they started their menstrual cycles at an early age like 14. Typically, men are diagnosed with breast cancer in their sixties or seventies.