Almost one-fourth of all cancers in women are located in the breast,causing about 20 percents of all cancer deaths in females. Most of these deaths occur between the age of 50 and 60, although the disease may actually develop years earlier. There are many population differences in cancer incidence around the world, for instance, women in the U. S. Are five times more likely to die from breast cancer than are women in Japan.
Without treatment, about 20 percents of patients with breast cancer will live five years from the onset of symptoms. If the disease is diagnosed in its early stages, treatment will be more succesful and may enable the patient to live a normal life span. Much can now be done to control pain for those whose cancers are in succesfully managed. Early detection is the primary weapon.
Breast cancer like cancer elsewhere in the body,is an uncontrolled growth of cells,little pieces of the growth may separate from the tumor and travel through the vessels of the lymphatic system to nearby lymph nodes,where the travelling cancer cells come to rest and form a secondary growth. It may also spread by way of the blood stream. These processes of spread throughout the body are called metastases.
The cause of breast cancer has not been established; an hereditary predisposition may exist. Studies conducted over the past several years have suggested the possibility that breast cancer may be associated with the improper functioning of glands which have to do with secondary sexual characreristics,pregnancy,and lactation. Although there are occasionally sharp changes in the breasts of women who are taking contraceptive pills, there is no evidence that the pill causes breast cancer.
In general, women considered to be in the high-risk group are; those with family history of mammary cancer,those who began menstruating early in life and who have continued their cycles for more than 30 years, and those who have had no pregnancies, or only one or two.
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