Breast cancer is most responsive when it is caught early. Early detection means more specific treatment options and the potential for less invasive procedures.
Thanks to enormous strides in medicine and billions of dollars of funding over the past few decades, the options for treating breast cancer have grown. This trend is likely to continue as more research sheds light on how this condition manifests itself, how it can be prevented and how it is most effectively treated.
Significance
According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-associated death among American women. As detection measures have become more accurate and treatments have become more effective, there has been an interesting trend in breast-cancer statistics: The overall death rate from breast cancer has dropped, but the number of breast cancers being diagnosed has increased steadily since the 1990s. It is still unclear as to whether this increase in diagnosis is due to better detection measures, more women getting the proper screenings, environmental or lifestyle factors or a combination of all of these.
What we do know is that breast cancer remains one of the most salient health risks a woman faces. A woman born in the United States currently has a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer during her lifetime.
Function:
The primary intention of any breast-cancer treatment is to kill the cancerous cells and prevent these cells from dividing. While many of the available treatment options are standard, for specific types of breast cancer cases, clinical trials are a possible mode of treatment. Clinical trials are indispensable in helping scientists and researchers develop improvements to current treatments.
Types:
There are four main types of breast cancer treatment: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
Often, a few different therapies are used in treating a breast-cancer case. When and if they are used is dependent upon the kind of breast cancer the woman has and its stage.
Surgery involves removing the cancer from the breast, as well as the surrounding lymph nodes. There are four main types of breast-cancer surgery: breast-conserving, total mastectomy, radical mastectomy and modified radical mastectomy.
The National Cancer Institute defines radiation therapy as a kind of breast-cancer treatment that uses high-energy X-rays or other types of radiation to kill the cancer cells. The two types of radiation treatment are external radiation (in which a machine external to the body sends in the radiation signals) and internal radiation (in which needles or catheters are placed inside the body to send the rays directly to the cancer).
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill the malignant cells or stop them from dividing. These drugs are usually administered intravenously or in pill or capsule form.
Hormone therapy is a type of cancer treatment that removes the hormones that are implicated in the development and progression of the cancer. Tamoxifen is one of the best-known hormone therapy drugs that have been used to treat breast cancer.
Effects
Even though breast-cancer treatment can be life-saving, the side effects associated with the treatment options can be very debilitating. But in recent years, advances have been made that have helped reduce some of the more uncomfortable side effects associated with chemotherapy and radiation.
The side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy can include any of the following: nausea, loss of appetite, mouth soreness, hair loss, fatigue, weight gain, premature menopause and a reduced immune system.
The side effects of surgery include localized and temporary pain following the operation, fluid build up in the arms and hands (if the lymph nodes were removed) and a shift in posture, balance and torso weight (if the breast was removed).
Prevention
Even though the thought of breast cancer brings up feelings of intense fear, there are many lifestyle choices a woman can make that can decrease her risk of contracting the disease.
You can’t control your age or your genetic make-up--two important factors in the contracting of breast cancer--but you can control how much you exercise, what you eat, how much alcohol you consume and your exposure to pesticides.
The Mayo Clinic offers these guidelines for preventing breast cancer: Maintain a healthy weight; limit alcohol to less than one drink per day or abstain from alcohol entirely; engage in 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days of the week; limit total fat intake to less than 35 percent of your daily calories and restrict your saturated fat intake; limit your exposure to pesticides; and avoid any unnecessary use of antibiotics.
In addition, practice early detection measures and discuss with your doctor other ways in which you can lessen your risk of this very serious disease.
