What Is Breast Cancer?
          
Cancers are a group of diseases that cause cells in the body to change and grow out of control. Most types of cancer cells form a lump or mass called tumor. The cancer is named after the part f the body where to tumor first starts.

Most types of tumors that form in the breast are benign. Benign means that the tumor is not cancer. Benign breast tumors are abnormal growths, but they do not grow and spread like cancer does, and are not life threatening.
 
Some breast tumors are cancerous, but are called in situ, because they have not spread beyond the area where they began. The majority of these tumors will not progress to become an invasive tumor, and at this early stage nearly all of these cancers can be cured.

Other cancerous breast tumors are invasive or infiltrating. These cancers start in the ducts or lobules of the breast, but have broken through the duct or gland walls to invade the surrounding fatty tissue of the breast. The
Beast Surgery
Recovery Exercises
 seriousness of invasive breast cancer it is first influenced by the stage of the disease or how far the cancer has spread when it is first diagnosed.
- Local stage described cancers confined to the breast
- Regional stage tumors have spreads to the lymph nodes
- Distant stage cancers have metastasized (spread to distant sites in the body)
     
Who Gets Breast Cancer?
    One in nine North American Women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. 1% of breast cancer diagnosed occurs in men.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the California, regardless of race/ethnicity. Survival is excellent when diagnosed early. If the cancer is confined to the breast when discovered, five years survival is over 95%

About 150 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in California, and about 30 die annually. Breast cancer in Men is clinically very similar to the disease in women, but the prognosis is often poorer, because men tend to be diagnosed at a later stage.

Breast Cancer mortality declines are now statistically significant for African American and Hispanic women. From 1988 to 1999 breast cancer mortality declined by 20 percent among African American and 10% among Hispanic women.

Breast Cancer is the most common cancer among African American women; however, the rate of newly diagnosed cases is about 13% lower that in Caucasian women.
Although fewer African American women develop breast cancer than Caucasians, their death rates from the disease are higher. African American Women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of breast cancer.

Women in lower economic levels have a 10-15% lower survival rate than average. If all women followed the American Cancer Society’s Guidelines for Breast Health, the breast cancer survival rates would be increased by 30%. The 5-year survival rate for breast cancer among African American women is 73% compared with 88% among Caucasian women.

Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among African American women, surpassed only by lung cancer.
 
Breast Cancer Screening        
 
Early detection is the best defense against breast health program of breast self-examination and routine examination by a physician should begin at age 20, followed by annual mammograms starting at age 40.
The American Cancer Society Guidelines for early detection are as follows:
   
        Test Procedures

Breast Self-Examination

Clinical breast examination


Mammography 		      Frequency

Monthly, starting at age 20

Every 3 years, ages 20-39
Annual, starting at age 40

Annual, starting at age 40 		     
Understanding Your Diagnosis
It is very important that you understand your diagnosis. Your treatment will be different depending on your diagnosis. The more information that you have about your specific diagnosis, the more informed you will be about your treatment choices.

Here are seven important questions to ask your doctor. Take a family member or friend to appointments with you. They can help you remember the discussion with your doctors.
1. Is my breast cancer invasive or noninvasive?
2. What stage is my breast cancer?
3. How large is my tumor?
4. Has the cancer spread to my lymph nodes? If So how many lymph nodes?
5. Is my breast cancer estrogen receptor – negative or estrogen receptor-positive?
6. Is my breast cancer progesterone receptor-negative or progesterone receptor-positive?
7. Is my breast cancer HER2/neu-negative or HER2/neu-positive
The answers to the above question will help you understand what each disease characteristic means to “you”. These characteristics help doctors decide which treatments to recommend.
Breast Cancer Stages
The Stages of breast cancer depends on how much the disease has spread. The more it has spread, the lower expected survival rate.
 
Source: American Cancer Society
Second Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Have you been diagnosed with breast cancer a second time? If so, here are some questions you may want to ask your doctor.
  1. Is this new tumor a new primary tumor? Or is it a local recurrence? Or does mean that I have metastatic breast cancer?
  2. Is this tumor different in any way from my previous tumor? If so, how will the differences affect my treatment?
  3. What were the results of my bone scan, liver function tests, chest X ra, and other tests?
  4. What are my treatment options?
  5. How will I know if the treatment is working?
Just like a first diagnosis with breast cancer, you want to be as informed as possible, so that you can make some choices about the treatments that are prescribed for you.