About Breast Disease
What is Breast Cancer?
Breast cancer is a disease that primarily afflicts women. Growths in the breast area can occur during the normal menstrual cycle, as a woman’s body goes through temporary changes in hormone levels. These lumps occasionally start in other tissue, but most commonly begin in the lobules that produce or carry milk.
Breast cancer can materialize as a small, confined tumor in the breast. A tumor can be harmless and benign, or a tumor can be malignant and cancerous. Because of the multiplying nature of cancer, early detection is important to be certain that the disease does not metastasize into other parts of the body and therefore is much more treatable.
Containing the cancer in the affected area greatly disables cancerous cells from shedding and spreading throughout the bloodstream and other body systems. There is no clear growth rate associated with cancer; therefore it is possible for infected cells to stay dormant at times or to replicate very quickly.
It is possible for men to get breast cancer. Approximately one-half of one percent of all breast cancer cases are diagnosed in men. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in her life. However, early detection and advancing technologies in breast care have given new hope for higher survival rates and improvement in treatment.
Causes of Breast Cancer
There is not a clear answer as to the true causes of breast cancer, but we are aware of risk factors that indicate a higher incidence rate for the disease. Nothing is certain, because even those with a high risk may never develop the disease.
What Puts You At Risk?
The most significant factors putting you at risk for breast cancer are increasing age and family history. Women over 50 years of age are much more likely to get breast cancer than younger women. Those who have previously been diagnosed with other cancers, in particular ovarian cancer, have a significantly higher chance of developing breast cancer. White, Non-Hispanic women have the highest overall incidence rate in the United States among racial groups. African American women have the highest mortality rate among breast cancer patients.
Symptoms and Warning Signs
Indicators for concern include:
- Any lump in the breast or underarm area that is inconsistent with normal swelling or usual changes during the menstrual cycle
- Changing shape, size or color of the breast area
- A sudden discharge from the nipple that may appear clear, bloody or colored
- Any changes in the nipple, such as inversion of the tip, burning, itching or tenderness to the touch
- Pain or soreness in the breast
- Marbling appearance of the skin or areola
- Swollen underarm area, or tender lymph nodes
- Flattening or indentation on the breast surface
- You develop an abnormal lump in the breast or underarm area. This may or may not be persistent with pain, but should be looked at for precautionary measures.
- You have swelling and tenderness in the lymph glands.
Diagnostics, Biopsy, and Treatment
Talk to your doctor to determine what method of care will work best for you. After a suspicious lump has been discovered and examined by a health care professional, she may not feel the need for further examination. If further examination is recommended, there are a number of tests that can be preformed to detect the presence of cancer cells.
1. SIMPLE EXAM – A Mammogram, Ultrasound and MRI can all help doctors decipher if a lump should or should not present concern.
2. BREAST BIOPSY – A Biopsy is a diagnostic tool that is used to remove cells from the suspicious mass to determine the diagnosis. These can be minimally invasive, in office procedures that take less than 20 minutes in most cases. Cores from the mass provide accurate samples for further testing. Please see the Rubicor Flash section for more information about biopsy options.
3. LESION REMOVAL – When a sample comes back benign, many patients are still concerned with the presence of a hard mass in their breast and opt for removal. There are many minimally invasive procedures that can be preformed to remove the lesion with little pain and pleasing cosmetic result. Please see the Rubicor Halo section or this brochure (.pdf) for more information on lesion removal options.
4. SURGICAL EXCISION – When a sample comes back from pathology as malignant, removing the cancer surgically is usually the next course of action depending on the stage of the disease.
See Diagnosis and Treatment sections for more details.