Breast cancer caused more than 40,000 deaths and accounted for more than 193,000 new cancer diagnoses in the United States in 2009, according to the National Cancer Institute. Breast cancer develops from mutated breast tissue cells that form tumors and invade neighboring tissue. In advanced stages of breast cancer, the cancer cells can travel throughout the body and form tumors in distant organs, a process called metastasis. Metastasis can lead to a number of severe and life-threatening symptoms in advanced breast cancer patients.
Bone Pain and Fracture
One tissue commonly affected by breast cancer metastasis is bone, and advanced breast cancer patients often have symptoms such as bone pain and fracture. Breast cancer cells can colonize on bone tissue and disrupt the normal growth and turnover of bone, leading to abnormal growths on the bone that increase bone mass or eat away at the bone. As the tumors of the bone grow, the bone tissue becomes more and more disrupted, weakened and susceptible to fractures. Advanced breast cancer patients with bone metastases most commonly experience joint pain and problems moving around, reports Cancer Help UK. Patients may be able to manage bone pain with painkillers and can receive treatment for bone weakness.
Labored Breathing
Another common symptom of advanced breast cancer is labored breathing, which occurs when breast cancer metastasizes to the lungs. Imaginis reports that 60 to 70 percent of women who die from breast cancer have tumors in their lungs and that the lungs are the only site of breast cancer metastasis in approximately 21 percent of patients. Breast cancer growth within the lung damages neighboring healthy lung tissue and also decreases the air capacity in the lungs as the tumor takes up more and more space.
Advanced breast cancer patients with lung metastases experience difficulty breathing and shortness of breath as a result of decreased lung capacity. Patients may also cough up bloody sputum symptomatic of lung damage. Therapy aimed at treating the cancer may alleviate labored breathing related to breast cancer.
Jaundice
Patients with advanced breast cancer may experience jaundice---the yellowing of the skin and eyes---in the late stages of the disease. Jaundice occurs after breast cancer metastasizes to the liver. Under normal conditions, one function of the liver is to produce bile, which aids in digestion. Tumor growth within the liver disrupts this function. The nonprofit organization BreastCancer.org reports that if bile ducts in the liver become blocked by the tumor, bile accumulates in the bloodstream, causing the yellow coloring that characterizes jaundice. Treating the breast cancer may alleviate the symptoms associated with liver damage due to breast cancer metastases.
