Breast cancer
Breast cancer, most common cancer type in women. For this reason, and because the breast often long shows no symptoms and therefore often go undetected for a long time, many women have great fear of getting this condition.

The risk of developing breast cancer increases with age, although the risk is not for all women is the same.
There are rather few known risk factors that increase the probability of developing a breast cancer.

Causes

1. This cancer type mostly arises from malignantly altered cells of the mammary gland or milk ducts. These cancer cells have the property that they can grow and multiply uncontrollably into vessels.

This allows in growth of blood vessels in the breast cancer throughout the body to disperse cancer cells, which then become the starting point of offshoot, known as metastases.
2. Other risk factors are smoking, especially in youth, and increased alcohol consumption. Rarely, benign breast tumors can develop into cancer.

3. Also some cases of breast cancer in women are due to such a familial risk. Especially if the mother or sister, so close blood relatives, is already ill at a young age, this may be an indication of such a gene mutation.

Symptoms

1. Cancer tumor generally grows very slowly, it can take years in some cases up to 20 years take until it is palpable.

2. Only when the breast cancer develops at a specific location, it can already cause early symptoms. Formed, for example, in an adult stage, this can lead to fluid discharge from the nipple.

3. There is also breast cancer tumors that spread in the skin of the nipple. This so called Paget’s disease leads to redness and flaking of the nipple, which can easily be confused with eczema of the nipple.

4. At a more advanced stage of the disease when the tumor has already become significantly larger, other characters may be added.

The tumor can then cause a swelling and redness of the surrounding tissue. In addition, it can also lead to confiscation of the nipple or skin area, which is located directly above the tumor.
5. At the present time, in the very consistent examinations are performed, a breast cancer stops are usually discovered at a relatively early stage, so that such ulceration is rarely seen.

Treatment or therapy

The treatment is customized for each patient. Depending on the stage of different surgical procedures, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and radiation are combined.

1. Over half of the women, it is possible to perform a breast conserving surgery called so. In this case not the whole affected breast, but the tumor is removed at a sufficient safety distance.

In addition to the lymph nodes in the armpit removed now, as they could possibly be already infected tumor cells.
By this operation, expansion however, there may in certain cases to impaired drainage of tissue fluid manifested by a painful swelling of the arm on the same side.

2. Another way of adjuvant therapy is chemotherapy. Here, the woman concerned will be administered substances that damage the tumor cells so much that they die. These drugs, the so called cytotoxic drugs may be administered in a plurality of cycles, so that today usually 6 treatment cycles to be carried out at an interval of 3 weeks.


The optimal breast cancer treatment for each woman is compiled from all of these treatment options, what the prognosis of women suffering from cancer has improved significantly in recent years.