Notes About Health

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.

Incidence of Breast Cancer

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.

The number of women surviving breast cancer has increased since 1990 thanks in part to better diagnosis. Specialists in breast cancer credit this and improvement in other treatment with the increase.

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.

Localised therapy for breast cancer includes surgery and sometimes x-ray therapy. The drug treatments can affect your whole body as well as the cancer but with modern regimens the side effects are not as bad as they used to be.

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.

Breast cancer rates are increasing and affect all ages. It is devastating to be diagnosed with cancer. But with better and earlier detection breast cancer can be beaten.

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.