Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer occurs when some cells in your breast grow out of control. It’s in the top 3 of cancers for women and is one of the leading causes of female mortality in early middle age, although survival rates are increasing every year.
Understandably many women fear breast cancer. Modern treatment is curing more women than ever but as with most illnesses early diagnosis leads to better odds of cure. Men do get breast cancer but there is a much lower incidence.
Breast Cancer Incidence
Compared with 20 years ago there are many more women with breast cancer. Developed countries have the highest number and poorer countries the lowest. Early diagnosis, better surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy save many more lives a year than in the past.
Thousands of extra women are cured of breast cancer each year compared to 1990. Breast cancer experts say this is related to better and earlier diagnosis and improved treatment.
Treatment
The treatment you will get depends on the type of cancer and if it has gone out of your breast elsewhere in your body. How far, if at all, the cancer has spread is called staging. Stage 0 means the cancer is just in the breast and stage 4 means it is spread through your body. What combination of treatment you receive depends on the stage and is the same for males and females.
Surgery, powerful cancer fighting drugs, x-rays, hormones and new drugs like Herceptin are the mainstays of modern treatment. Your treatment can be aimed locally at the tumour or more widely affect the rest of your body.
Localised therapy for breast cancer includes surgery and sometimes x-ray therapy. The drug treatments can affect your whole body as well as the cancer but with modern regimens the side effects are not as bad as they used to be.
Breast Cancer Survival
More women conquer and beat cancer each year. With earlier diagnosis and smaller spread of cancer survival rates are high. Individuals are all different however and there are lots of examples of women with more advanced cancer beating it and living long lives. Males and females have broadly the same chances of beating the disease.
Breast cancer rates are increasing and affect all ages. It is devastating to be diagnosed with cancer. But with better and earlier detection breast cancer can be beaten.
Breast cancer does not mean you are going to die but it is an enormous shock, which can be taken on and overcome. Female relatives may need to be assessed as many cancers are related to particular genes.
