BREAST CANCER

AN OVERVIEW

Breast cancer is a potentially malignant and a life threatening condition, which is more, feared than any other amongst women the world over. Conversely, it could well be considered ironical that – if statistics are any index – in the US, alone more women die of cardiovascular condition rather than all forms of cancers combined! Concurrently statistics do indicate that Breast cancer needs be considered a potent cause of death in American women, which is second only to Lung cancer as a cause of death. It is more than medically validated that women have a much higher incidence of contacting breast cancer as compared to men – to collaborate – well over two hundred thousand women contacted breast cancer in the US alone as compared to a modest fifteen hundred men in the year 2005 alone.

BREAST CANCER MANAGEMENT AND MUTILATIONS

In the years gone by a diagnosis of Breast cancer invariably translated into a radical excision of the breast – better known as radical mastectomy with excision of the regional lymph nodes – located just under the corresponding arm in addition to the muscles and skin located underneath the breast – making it a potentially mutilating management for most.

The rapidly changing technology and knowledge transformation in the realm of medicine could well be translated into breast sparing operations for most rather than breast excision operations.

DISEASE AND IDENTIFICATION

Breast cancer could well present with a wide array of diverse symptoms wherein any one patient could well present with one or more of:

• Painless lump in the breast
• A clear or blood stained discharge from the nipples
• Morphologically the breast could well present with change in contours or size
• The nipple may exhibit retraction of the nipple
• The skin over the breast may under changes which may present as a pitting look in addition to a reddish look which could well mimic the skin of a orange

CALCIUM DEPOSITS

Calcium deposits of the breast typically present with small micro calcified well-defined areas all over the breast tissue, which are best diagnoses by using the known popular screening technique of Mammography. These micro calcifications are typically an outcome of cellular debris, inflammatory cells and the likes rather than due to dietary intake of calcium.

BREAST CANCER MECHANICS

Breast cancer is invariably an outcome of abnormal and rapid growth of cells of the breast tissue, which usually begins with the milk producing ducts of the breast – alternatively the lobules of the breast could well be the node of origin. These could well spread to lymph and other parts of the body – referred to as Metastasis.

Breast Cancer then is one of the potentially life threatening disease condition which could well be terminal in the years gone by – the present day advances in medicine have apparently ushered in an era of options which could well increase survival rates and quality of life for most – if not all.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 11:26 pm and is filed under Health Issues, Medical Info. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.