Surgery is the mainstay of treatments available for breast cancer. The type of surgery used depends on the size and location of the tumor, the type of tumor and the person’s wishes and overall health. It is now possible for breast-sparing surgery in many cases. And if breast surgery is needed, breast reconstruction is an option taken by many women.

Lumpectomy – this involves the removal of the cancerous tissue that is cancerous and the surrounding area. The lymph nodes in the armpit are generally sampled at the same time. This is just about always done along with other therapies such as radiation therapy or with chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. Lumpectomy is usually performed when the surgeon is convinced there has been no spread of the cancer cells.

A simple mastectomy consists of the removal of the entire breast. If the cancer is found to be invasive, this type of surgery alone will not be successful in curing it. This is a common surgical treatment for non-invasive types of breast cancer. Radiation treatment or chemotherapy is usually given in conjunction with this treatment.

Radical modified mastectomy removes the breast and the underarm (axillary) lymph nodes although it does not remove the underlying muscle in the chest wall. Surgery alone is usually considered adequate to control the breast cancer if it has not metastasized although addition chemotherapy or hormonal therapy is offered on most occasions.

Those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer will be required to undergo follow up care for the rest of their life. The initial following up treatment is usually every 3-6 months during the first 2-3 years. This often involved a careful examination of the breast, an annual mammography, blood tests and on some occasions, chest x-rays. Other tests such as bone and CT scans are performed when needed.

It is important that a close family relative of someone diagnosed with breast cancer such as a mother, daughter or sister to be tested for breast cancer on an annual basis.

Those women who are genetically at high risk of developing breast cancer may benefit from tamoxifen as it has previously been seen to decrease the incidence of the disease occurring. Raloxifene, which is used to treat osteoporosis is now being studied for treating breast cancer.

The potential side effects should be discussed at length with your health care provider before beginning each different treatment.

Excessive alcohol intake and obesity following menopause can increase the risk of developing breast cancer although this increase is slight. Those women who are physically active have a lower risk.

More and more women who are at a high risk of developing breast cancer are having preventative or prophylactic mastectomies to avoid them developing breast cancer.

The main risk factors for women to develop breast are age, sex and genetics. Women can do nothing about these risks so regular screen is recommended to prevent death caused by breast cancer.

Women should undertake regular screening including self examination, mammography and clinical breast examinations.

Chemotherapy involves the administration of drugs that kill the cancer cells or stop them from growing. Most chemotherapy medications are given through an intravenous line, although some are administered in pill form. Chemotherapy is a harsh regime which often makes people feel more ill than the illness they are suffering from, however it has been proved to be very effective.
Chemotherapy is usually administered in cycles where each cycle consists of a period of intensive treatment which lasts for a few days or weeks followed by a week of recovery. Most patients with breast cancer have two to four cycles of chemotherapy to start with before tests are performed to see what effects it has had on the cancer.
Chemotherapy is different to radiation as it can treat the whole body with the potential of finding other tumor cells that have migrated from the breast and surrounding area. Many people are familiar with chemotherapy’s side effects although the side effects do depend upon which drugs are used to treat the patient.
The most common side effects are loss of hair, loss of appetite, fatigue, vomiting and low blood cell count making the patient more susceptible to infections, feeling sick or tired. Many notice that they bleed more than usual, especially from gums and small scrapes and sores etc.
There are three different chemotherapy strategies are used in breast cancer:
? adjuvant chemotherapy – this is given to patients who have undergone curative treatment for breast cancer such as radiation or surgery. This treatment is given to decrease the possibility of the breast cancer returning.
? Pre-surgical chemotherapy – this is given to shrink a large tumor and/or to kill any stray cancerous cells. This will also increase the chance that the surgery will kill the cancer completely.
? Regular chemotherapy – this is given routinely to people who have breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast or the surrounding local area.
Hormonal therapy may also be given as many breast cancers such as those that have ample estrogen or progesterone receptors are sensitive to changes in hormones.
In some breast cancer cases, a woman’s natural hormones are suppressed with drugs whereas other patients find benefits by adding hormones. Tamoxifen for instance is currently the most commonly prescribed effective hormone treatment. It can be used for treating breast cancer and also in the prevention of breast cancer. Tamoxifen has few side effects and can considerably improve the life span of those women who have advanced cases of breast cancer.
A further treatment, Fulvestrant has recently been approved in the USA. It is planned that it will be used for treating hormone receptor positive metastastic breast cancer in women who have been through the menopause. It is given following antiestrogen therapy.
Another treatment known as monoclonal is antibodies that are antagonistic against the proteins which are in or around cancer cells. They recognise an invader such as a cancer cell and attack it. This antibody therapy is currently being investigated and holds out a lot of hope for breast cancer sufferers.

Women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer do have choices after a recommendation is made to remove a breast. She may elect to leave the chest area as it is after surgery, choose a prosthesis (artificial breast), or choose to have breast reconstruction surgery. Because many women have feelings of self-worth tied to their physical appearance, they may choose to have breast reconstruction surgery. For many women their emotional health is put in danger when facing the loss of a breast.

This surgical procedure will restore the shape and form to your body after surgery for breast cancer. Surgical reconstruction may involve expanders, implants, and using tissue from your body. Sometimes a combination of implants and tissue expansion may be successful.

If you choose to have breast reconstruction after surgery, you will need to consult a plastic surgeon. Two or more surgeons often work together to perform the necessary procedure either during your first cancer surgery or later. Reconstruction includes reshaping the breast area and includes reconstruction of the nipple. Tattooing gives the nipple area the look and color of your original nipple. Surgery on your other breast may be needed, even if the other breast does not have cancer cells. Reconstruction surgery may be used on the healthy breast to give it the same texture and shape as the breast that is being rebuilt.

You will want to meet with your plastic surgeon before surgery. They will work with your primary surgeon to coordinate operating room procedures. The plastic surgeon will walk you through the procedure and will have photos available of women who have had breast reconstruction surgery. You will talk about your treatment choices after surgery, whether you will have reconstruction performed at the same time of the primary surgery, or wait to have reconstruction performed later.

The plastic surgeon will provide information about where the surgery will be performed and what anesthesia will be used, and what you can expect after surgery. You will also need to check your medical insurance policy to see what reconstruction surgery is covered by insurance.

It is important to be comfortable with the surgeon who is doing your breast reconstruction. Look for a surgeon who has experience in breast reconstruction and who others have recommended. If personal recommendations are unavailable, be sure to ask for photos of women they have operated on. Ask any the questions you can think of. It is your body, and you have the right to know what to expect from your surgery. If you don’t feel comfortable with one surgeon, you may want to make an appointment with another one. It is important you have confidence in your medical team.

Your plastic surgeon will discuss the different methods used in breast reconstruction and help you decide which one is best for you. Breast reconstruction is usually done in more than one surgery. Your surgeon can tell you how many surgeries you will need and help you decide if breast reconstruction is the answer for you.

Breast reconstruction is rarely done with only one surgery. Even if you have the procedure started during your mastectomy, you will still need to have a second procedure. Breast reconstruction procedures include breast implants, tissue expanders, and tissue reconstruction.

Breast implants are silicone shells filled with either saltwater or silicone. They are either tear shaped or round and it is placed behind the pectoral muscle in your chest. This is similar to the procedure when a breast expansion is done. Most women will need to have tissue expanders placed in the chest area before the implant is placed.

Tissue expanders stretch the remaining tissue to allow room for the implant. Tissue expansion will take place over several months. The tissue expander has a small valve that your doctor will use to insert saline solution in with a needle. The balloon is filled gradually and allows the skin to stretch. There may be a feeling of pressure or slight discomfort while the tissues are expanding.

Once the expander has reached the correct size, the doctor performs a second operation to put in the permanent implant. Some doctors use an expander that will be permanent and a second surgery won’t be needed. An implant may be inserted into the other side of the breast area to insure both breasts are similar in size and shape.

Another procedure uses tissue reconstruction. This method is complex but does have its positive points. Using tissue from your own body removes any danger from leakage of the saline filled balloon, or any reaction from the silicone. Women are given two choices of surgical methods. The first method transfers muscle, skin, and fat to the chest area by keeping it all attached to the blood supply. This is pedicle flap surgery. Tunnels beneath the skin carry this tissue to the chest area and its moved into a pocket your surgeon has prepared for the implant.

The second procedure removes the tissue from the area while disconnecting it from its blood supply. The surgeon then reattaches the tissue with microsurgery to the blood vessels near your chest. This procedure takes longer to perform because of the delicate nature of reattaching all the blood vessels. This procedure is called the free flap surgery.

Tissue used for the free flap surgery can be taken from donor areas from your back, buttocks, or abdomen. Taking the tissue from the abdomen can serve a duo purpose because it takes excess muscle, fat, and tissue from the abdomen and is considered a little “tummy tuck.” This may appeal to some women who have excess fat and tissue in their abdomen area. This procedure takes a small portion of the abdominal muscle to allow you to keep as much abdominal strength as possible after surgery. The appeal of the “tummy tuck” sways many women to choose for this second procedure even though it may mean a longer time in the operating room.

Consult your doctor and plastic surgeon for help in choosing the best method of reconstruction for your body.

Scientists and doctors are already aware of the affect that diet has on your risk factor for cancer. Now they are looking into the effects that diet has after you have had treatment for breast cancer. Studies are being done to discover if changing your diet after you have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.

There have only been two studies that looked into the relationship to a person’s diet and their survival rate after breast cancer. The results of those two studies look promising, but more studies will need to be done to decide if there is a connection. One early study looked at the survival rate of women who enrolled in a special study involving diet had amazing results. Women who had breast cancer that had not spread or metastasized who ate large amounts of poultry, total protein, and omega-3 fatty acids had a much lower rate of death than those whose diet didn’t include those three foods. Those women who ate a diet high in fiber, fish and vegetables also had a significant drop in death rate.

Higher rates of calcium in the body, and who ate more protein had a lower death rate than those who consumed large quantities of hydrogenated oils. Those oils are found in processed and baked foods.

Another study of a smaller group of women showed that women who had breast cancer that had not metastasized had a lower death rate if they were postmenopausal, ate more vegetables, and got more vitamin C from their diet. It is important to remember that both of these studies were in women that cancer that was not metastasized. This is an important discovery in cancer research. More studies will need to be conducted before it can be said clearly that what you eat can reduce your risk of dying of breast cancer.

The studies suggest that those women who ate more poultry and fish and less hydrogenated oils had a higher survival rate than the other group. Poultry has been determined to be a healthier choice for protein than red meat. The studies may show that women who ate healthier usually had a more active lifestyle. Those who consumed more hydrogenated oil seemed less concerned about health issues. This difference in two lifestyles may have had an affect on the women involved in the studies.

Breast cancer survival rates also seemed affected by the fat consumed, especially about tumor cells found in lymph nodes. The results of the studies show that eating a healthier diet can reduce your chances of dying of breast cancer.

Eating healthy and having a healthier, more active lifestyle has shown that it does decrease your risk of getting breast cancer and increases your chances of surviving the disease.

These studies could be very important because your diet after your diagnosis and treatment is under your control. If you knew that changing your diet can increase your life span after diagnosis, would you be willing to change it?

Early breast cancer does not have any symptoms nor is it painful. Most breast cancer is discovered before the symptoms become present either by the find of an abnormality on a mammography or by feeling a lump in the breast. Some women notice a lump under the arm or above the collar bone which does not go away. There are other symptoms which may become present such as discharge from the breast, inversion of the nipple or changes to the skin which overlies the breast.

Most lumps that are found in the breast are not cancerous. However, they all need to be checked and evaluated by a doctor.

Although rarely a symptom of cancer, discharge from the breast is a common problem. It is more concerning if the discharge is occurring in one breast and/or has a blood in it. All breast discharge should be checked out by a doctor. It is very common for normal nipples to be inverted although if they do this as a new development, there is cause for concern and this should also be discussed with your doctor.

If breast cancer is present, there may also be changes to the skin on the breast such as redness, texture changes or puckering. Skin diseases can also cause these changes so don’t be too alarmed. However you should get these types of changes checked out, as they may also be associated with breast cancer.

Breast cancer can develop over a period of months or years. Once it has been identified, treatment should be given with some urgency due to the fact that it is difficult to treat if the cancer spreads from the breast to other parts of the body. This is known as metastastic spread.

You should look out for the following and contact your healthcare provider if you:
find a lump in your breast, under your arm or above the collar bone that
* stays for longer than a week
* develop discharge from your breast
* notice a new development in your nipple such as a sudden inversion
* Notice new skin changes in your breast.

Swelling or redness in your breast may be an indication of an infection in the breast tissue. An infection should also be treated promptly so you should see your healthcare provider immediately. You should also visit your nearest healthcare provider if you notice swelling, redness or severe pain in your breast under your shoulder or under your armpit.

Should an abnormality be found on a mammogram, you should ensure that an appointment is made immediately for further evaluation with your healthcare provider to provide you with the comfort of an all clear.

There are usually several steps involved in the diagnosis of breast cancer such as examination of the breast, ultrasonography or mammography. Finally, you may undergo a biopsy which is the only definitive method to diagnose breast cancer.
Complete examination of the breast includes a visual inspection and palpitation, including the armpits and the areas around the collarbone. Your healthcare provider may also palpate for a lump or feel for a thickening in the skin.

Although it’s not a perfect method, surgery is the only way of dealing with breast cancer. It’s undeniable that it has some major downsides, including not being 100% effective and having negative psychological and aesthetical effects on the patient, but it’s the best that medicine can offer as of now. And since the method itself cannot be (yet) replaced, efforts have been put into reducing these negative effects and avoiding the problems they cause. If the tumor is larger and if it is discovered in a later stage, the patient’s entire breast must be removed (process called mastectomy, as opposed to lumpectomy – where only the small cancerous lump is removed) which leaves her with some serious aesthetical problems, which in turn cause the psychological ones. Fortunately, science and medicine have done wonders in this direction in the last few decades, allowing post-surgery breast reconstruction to be a reality.

Before going any further in the subject, it’s important to specify that in some cases, breast reconstruction cannot be performed immediately after the surgery. The reasons are multiple and they include the fact that breast cancer surgery is not always effective from the first time. This means that although the tumor was removed, there might still be cancerous cells in the area with the risk of spreading in the adjacent tissue and a second operation is required, in case the area that is still affected is larger. If it’s not as large as to require a second operation, these cells can be destroyed with treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, but these take time, making breast reconstruction impossible during the treatment.

There are two main breast reconstruction methods that are commonly used today: the use of a tissue expander in combination with breast implants and flap reconstruction. The first one is probably the more common of the two, although it requires more time to be effective. What the surgeon does in this case is insert a temporary implant beneath the chest wall, where the mastectomy operation took place and periodically injects saline solutions to slowly expand the overlaying tissue. The rate at which the solution is injected depends on several factors, ranging over a few weeks or months. In any case, it’s a slower but dependable solution. After the breast has been stretched to the required size, the temporary implant is replaced by a normal silicone one and the nipple and areola are reconstructed separately in a final surgical intervention.

The second method, called flap reconstruction, requires the surgeon to use the tissue from another part of the patient’s body (from larger body areas such as the back, buttocks, abdomen and so forth) in order to reconstruct the breast. Although a faster method than the one using the tissue expander, flap reconstruction may not have the same efficiency. Flap reconstruction can recreate the look and feel of the skin prior to the mastectomy, although a small visible difference is unavoidable. Implants are used for the inner part of the breast, the process being almost identical to that used in breast augmentation. Therefore, even if the operation succeeds, the patient will still be vulnerable to the same problems and risks involved in breast augmentation.

As with most other forms of cancer, breast cancer can’t simply be “treated” like an ordinary disease, through medication, therapy or the likes. Since it’s such a serious condition and because it has a more aggressive negative effect with each passing day that you let it grow, breast cancer needs to be treated in the same aggressive parameters. Although many different treatment methods have been tested along the years, the only one that remains efficient is the removal of the cancerous tumor through surgery.

Before jumping in to describe what breast cancer surgery is all about, we need to emphasize on the fact that the sooner the tumor is found, the higher the chances of the surgery being successful and effective. If the tumor grows beyond a certain size, it might be either too risky to take out through surgery, or it might have spread to a larger area where an effective “cleaning” of the cancerous cells after the surgery is simply impossible. That’s why, finding the tumor through the various available breast cancer screening methods of today (including mammography and self-examination) is considered equally crucial as the surgery itself.

There are different types of breast cancer surgeries, the one a patient needs to undergo depending heavily on the stage the tumor has reached and its type and size. For example, if found in an early stage, the surgery might consist of a simply lumpectomy (the removal of the cancerous lump), if the doctor is certain the disease has not spread in the adjacent tissue. If this is not the case, and the disease has spread in the entire breast, or if the tumor is in an advanced state, the patient might be required to undergo a mastectomy, which is the surgical removal of the entire breast. This is an operation that involves some higher risks and in many cases, even if the operation succeeds and the tumor is eliminated completely, the patients might face problems of a psychological nature, regarding their aesthetical aspect.

Sometimes, surgical tumor removals are not entirely successful. It’s standard practice for the surgical staff to set the operation margins where the tissue is clear of cancerous cells and this is usually determined by an estimation based on the size of the tumor, x-ray images and biopsy tests. None is 100% effective, so in some cases, cancerous cells still exist even after the removal of the tissue. If the area containing them is large, then further operations might be required, but in most cases these last diseased cells can be treated with either radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

To conclude, although it has some rather important disadvantages, breast cancer surgery is the only viable treatment for such a disease. With the help of some of the above-mentioned additional treatment methods, the efficiency of a surgical intervention is even higher, but, as it’s the case with most diseases (and especially with cancer, which can’t be effectively treated by traditional medication) regular screening and taking preventive measures are two extremely important steps that can make the difference later on.

Breast cancer is a very serious disease which should not be taken lightly by anybody. It can affect you or the people that you love without warning. For that reason, it is important to learn as much as you can about this affliction. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of breast cancer statistics that can help you to realize exactly how severe of a problem breast cancer is in the world today.

- Breast cancer is the second biggest cause of death by cancer in women. It is second only to lung cancer in women’s cancer mortality rates.

- In any given year, as many as 1.2 million women on average across the world will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
- In the year 2000 alone, 202,044 women in North America were diagnosed with a new case of breast cancer. Also in the year 2000, 51,184 North American people died as a result of breast cancer.
-The risk of a woman getting breast cancer at some point in her life is around 1 in 8. The risk for getting breast cancer before age 30, however, is a mere 1 in 2,212.
- The 5-year survival rate for women under age 45 for breast cancer is 81 percent.
-Roughly 77 percent of all breast cancer cases are diagnosed in women that are 50 years of age or older.
- Few realize that breast cancer can occur in men as well. While nowhere near as prevalent in men, an estimated 1,860 males will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
- The highest risk of breast cancer is faced by those with white, Hawaiian, or African American ancestry. This risk faced by these ethnicities is roughly 4 times as prevalent as the chance faced by the lowest risk group.
-After women reach age forty, it is highly recommended for them to get a mammogram yearly. However, only 66.9 percent of all women over 40 have had a mammogram in the past two years.
- Breast cancer IS the leading cause of cancer deaths in a specific age group of women: 40 to 59.
-While the threat of breast cancer is still quite serious, statistics show that the death rates of women from breast cancer in the United States have decreased by about 2.8 percent every year from 1990 to 2000.
As you can see, breast cancer is a problem that is far-reaching and life-altering. Unfortunately, the statistics do not show that a full 100 percent of women get an annual mammogram. If you are a woman over the age of 40, it is important to ensure that you are not one of the 33.1 percent of women who are in the dark about the status of their breast health. Early detection of breast cancer can lead to being able to fix the problem before it becomes too late. Fear is never an adequate excuse for not getting a yearly mammogram; it is an important and necessary process for those who are high in risk for breast cancer.

Similarly to most other diseases and conditions as damaging as cancer, a good prevention and screening is oftentimes more important and more useful than the actual treatment, which might be either risky or ineffective. Although surgery is a relatively effective way of treating breast cancer, in the unfortunate event that the tumor is not discovered in time, it might be too late even for this radical treatment to work. That’s why most cancer specialists agree in unison that a good screening process is vital in the fight against breast cancer.

Although there are many forms of breast cancer screening, some more effective than others, the two main methods remain mammography and breast self examination. The latter, as the name suggests, can be produced by anyone, without the need of a trip to the doctor or any tools and accessories. Basically, breast self-examination (or BSE) is correctly done if it follows the set of steps presented below:

1. Stand in front of a mirror that allows you to clearly see your body, from the waist up.
2. Expose your top and place your hands on your hips.
3. While in this position, look for any swellings, red spots or bumps on your breasts in the mirror.
4. Place your arms above your head and repeat step 3.
5. Palpate your breasts for lumps. Don’t refrain your search just to lumps beneath the skin, but also try to feel inside the deeper tissues of the breast.
6. Palpate the entire breast, from its base, to the edge and make sure you leave no spot unsearched.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 while laying down.
8. Pay special attention to the nipple area and the area just beneath them.
9. Squeeze the nipples gently, checking for any kind of discharge.
10. Repeat the entire process a couple of times for safety, since it’s easy to miss smaller lumps in a single self-examination.

Provided you follow these steps closely, you should immediately notice anything out of order on your breasts. It’s important that you try and form a breast self-examination “schedule” and perform it at least once a week, since it will be easier to spot changes to your breasts. The entire process shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes and given the fact that it may very well save you a lot of trouble (and why not, your life!) those will be some well-spent minutes.

The second form of breast cancer screening is mammography. It’s not as easy to produce as breast self examination but it has a high efficiency that recommends this method as one of the best in breast cancer screening. Using low-dose x-rays on the breast, the mammograms form an image that can be analyzed by specialists for abnormal tumors or cysts inside the breast. However, the use of x-rays (although they are used at an extremely low rate) has earned mammography a sizeable opposition consisting of several specialized institutions and individuals that consider it unsafe. Above all this, mammography has a slight error rate that is also heavily contested. Despite these problems, mammography remains one of the main breast cancer screening methods next to BSE and it is recommended in many countries as a yearly examination in order to prevent the risks of breast cancer.