Learn more about an aggressive yet little known form of breast cancer called Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC).
(To play video click on the above title IBC Explained)
Learn more about why IBC is misdiagnosed and why most Doctors are not familiar with this deadly diease.
Duration : 0:1:11
With staggering statistics showing that 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, it’s no wonder that most of us know someone who has suffered from this heartbreaking and sometimes deadly disease.
But did you know there is one form of breast cancer that is so aggressive that symptoms literally appear overnight and spread so rapidly that it is considered the deadliest breast cancer with the highest mortality rate? I’m talking about a little known form of cancer called Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC).
Give yourself a fighting chance against IBC. The only way to do that is to be more in tune with your body and learn everything you can about Inflammatory Breast Cancer.
“When breast cancer is found early, the 5 year survival rate is 96%.” – National Breast Cancer Foundation
Consider yourself, your sister, your mother, your daughter or your wife . . . then ask the question. . . Do you know enough about Inflammatory Breast Cancer to recognize it when you see it? Do your loved ones?
Don’t let a lack of awareness or hesitation be the reason you or a loved one dies of Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Learn more through your doctor, online and by visiting http://www.ibcexplained.com and share this information with other women today!
Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common malign diseases. At least a million women per year get diagnosed with BC, and at least four hundred thousand die. However, what are the top myths about it? We went to National Breast Cancer Foundation to search for some answers.
1. Every Breast Lump is a Cancer?
Not every lump is bad at all. Most are completely harmless. However, it’s important that a women sees the doctors every time she notices a new lump. Early detection means your life is going to be saved in most of the cases.
2. I Have Small Breasts, so Have Less Chance of Getting BC?
There is no connection with the breast size whatsoever.
3. A Mammogram Can Cause Breast Cancer To Spread?
There is no scientific study which finds any relation between BC spreading and doing a mammogram. A Mammogram cannot cause BC spreading. Experts don’t having any doubts about that.
4. Nobody Had a Breast Cancer in my Family, so I Won’t Get It?
The reality shows this is unfortunately not true. All women are at risk, and the risk increases depending on the environment, food and drinks you take, cigarette smoke you breath in etc.
5. Mastectomy Stops the Cancer in All Cases
The chances are small but it’s possible to get it after mastectomy. It is not the best way to stop BC spreading in all cases. Other treatments, or a combination of more treatments can be more effective.
6. Young Women Are Just As Likely To Get It As Older Women?
The risk increases with age. Women over 50 are at biggest risk. Doctors recommend frequent check ups for women over 50, and once per year check ups for women in their twenties.
7. Breast Cancer is Fatal?
When diagnosed early it’s not considered a life threatening condition because modern treatments can be extremely successful.
For facts on breast cancer survival rate visit http://www.breastcancersurvivaltruth.com, a source for complete truth about the chances for survival.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_M_Marshall
It is very important for each and every one of us to know the signs and symptoms of breast cancer for us to be able to know what will be possible and most effective way to overcome such. Well, the first particular sign and symptom of this kind of disease is a lump that is different from the surrounding tissues around the breast. It is said that if a woman felt a lump in her breast, then it is a cancer, more than 80% of breast cancer cases are discovered in this manner, this is based on the Merck Manual. And the first objective indications or medical signs of breast cancer is discovered by a mammogram or is detected by a doctor. The lymph nodes located at the armpit are where the lumps are found and or the collarbone can also be a sign of breast cancer.
Signs and symptoms of breast cancer other than a lump may also include changes that may in the breast’s size and breast’s shape; also, dimples appear in the skin, inversion of nipples, or a single-nipple discharge that is spontaneous. Pain is not a reliable tool to determine the presence or the absence of a breast cancer, but it can also be a sign of other breast-related health problems like the mastodynia.
If a breast cancer cells enter the dermal lymphatic by force, the small lymph vessels in breast’s skin, the inflammatory breast cancer is the inflammation that resembles on the skin presentation. The signs and symptoms of the inflammatory breast cancer comprise pain, swelling of the breast, over all warmth and redness of the breast and also the texture of the skin that looks like an orange peel and is called or referred to as “peau d’orange”
Another complex symptom that is reported on this kind of disease is the Paget’s disease of the breast. And this disorder is known as the eczamatoid, in this manner, the skin changes in color, it will be red and the nipple skin will have a mild flaking texture. As the Paget’s disease of the breast moved forward, the signs may consist of itchiness and the increase of the sensitivity of the skin, burning and it will be painful too. Discharge from the nipple may also occur. Actually almost half of the women who are diagnosed with Paget’s are also suffering from lump in the breast.
The cancer that is spread further than the original organ is a metastatic disease. The metastatic breast cancer can cause signs and symptoms depending on the metastasis location. Metastasis’s common location may be found in the bone, in the liver, in the lungs and in the brain. The weight loss that is unexplainable can be sometimes the indication of a disease, the signs can also be determined as fevers and chills. Also, a bone and joint pains can be a sign sometimes, as well as the jaundice or a neurological signs. But these signs are not that specific, because it can also be a sign and symptom of any other illnesses.
Always remember that most signs and symptoms of breast disorder is not really the best representation. The mastitis and fibro adenoma of the breast are the benign breast diseases and are more common causes and signs of breast disorder. And both patient and the doctor must take seriously the new development of signs and symptoms that may occur, because there may be instances that breast diseases may occur at an early age too.
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Carla Mangila Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erlinda_Carla_B._De_Guzman-Mangila |
The finding, presented at the 2009 Breast Cancer Symposium, held last week in San Francisco, could potentially affect how women are screened for breast cancer.
About 5% to 10% of breast cancer cases are thought to be connected to a genetic mutation that’s also linked to ovarian cancer. Women with the mutations, known as BRCA1 or BRCA2, have an increased risk of developing breast tumors. Over a lifetime, 60% of them will develop the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. By comparison, 12% of women in the general population will develop breast cancer.
Women who have the genetic mutation — or whose mothers or aunts have it — are advised to be screened for breast cancer starting when they are 25. Mammography and MRI are now recommended for these women.
In the new study, the researchers examined the medical records of 132 women with the genetic mutation who took part in the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s clinical cancer genetics program between 2003 and 2009. Of those, 107 had a mother or aunt with breast or ovarian cancer.
The median age of diagnosis in the newer generation was 42, but 47 in the older women. The study authors report that this is worrisome because it could mean that the cancer is developing earlier.
“These findings are certainly concerning and could have implications on the screening and genetic counseling of these women,” said study co-author Dr. Jennifer Litton, an assistant professor at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in a news release from the center. “In BRCA-positive women with breast cancer, we actually might be seeing true anticipation — the phenotype or cancer coming out earlier per generation. This suggests more than the mutation could be involved, perhaps lifestyle and environmental factors are also coming into play.”
– Randy Dotinga
Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
SOURCE: University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, news release, Oct. 16, 2009
Sharp pain in the chest, fatigue, shortness of breath?
Any or all signs of breast cancer?
What are they?
Breast Cancer Facts http://howtotreatcancer.com/
Breast cancer is one of the most commonly found cancer form in women and early treatment can assure greater survival rate. Let us look at some Breast Cancer Facts to find out more information regarding its diagnosis, symptoms and treatment. Enlarge Image Breast cancer is one of the most frequently met forms of cancer in the case of women, which usually occupies a second place in recent statistics, after skin cancer.
Taking into account the actual life expectancy, it was determined that approximately one woman out of nine will suffer from breast cancer. The cause and the treatment of this disease have not been identified yet, but, if it is detected in an early phase of its evolution, it can be treated with very good results by conservative surgery of the breast, followed by radio therapy. This treatment of cancer, detected in an early phase, assures a 97% survival rate of five years.
What do you have to do in order to detect breast cancer in an early phase?
1. Clinical exam of the breast: women with the age between 20 and 40 years should benefit of this exam as part of the general control of their health condition, preferably once in three years. Women older than 40 years must be examined by a specialist once a year.
2. Mammography: It is a radiological exam of the breast, with very small doses of X rays. Women, which are older than 40, should benefit from a mammography every year. If you notice something suspect at your breast, or you have in you family cases of breast cancer, go to your physician and establish together the moment when you should start doing this investigation. Even if some cancers can’t be detected by the mammography, this still remains an excellent method of diagnosis.
3. The auto examination of the breast: This method of an early detection of breast cancer is very important. In order to obtain the best results you must perform it 10 days after the menstruation. If your period is not regular, you ma perform the auto examination in the same day of the month. There are sites on the internet where you may find auto examination techniques and other useful information related to this subject.
Which are the factors involved in the genesis of breast cancer?
Risk factors : sex, age, genetic risk, family history, personal breast cancer history race, radiological examinations at an early age, biopsies, normal substitution therapy, alcohol consumption, obesity.
Protection factors: nursing, physical exercise, a balanced diet.
Signs and symptoms which might suggest breast cancer:
1. Axillary’s tumor mass, or a tumor mass located in the breast or next to it. If it is not painful, hard, with irregular edges, adherent to the tissues around, there is a high probability to be cancerous.
2. A denser area of the breast compared to those around it.
3. Changing of the breast shape or size.
4. Wrinkles, depressions, or red breast skin.
5. Pains in the mammilla or a depression in it.
6. Any secretion, different from milk.
If any of these signs appear, go immediately to a doctor specialized in this disease. Not any change you feel in your breast mean cancer, 80 % of the inflammations are benign, but it would be the best thing for you to be seen by a doctor, who will indicate the investigations you need.
Remember:
1. Breast cancer may appear at any age, but it is more possible if you are older.
2. The risk to get breast cancer at the age of 70 is double compared to the age of 50.
3. More than 70% of the women suffered from breast cancer didn’t have any other person in the family suffering from this disease.
4. An early diagnostic means better chances of survival.
5. Mammography is a sure and efficient instrument for detecting breast cancer even before it could be felt. Annual examination by an expert and auto examination every month are extremely important, too.
Frequency The frequency of breast cancer grows continuously in developed countries (especially in Occidental Europe and in North America, less in Japan). Every year, breast cancer is responsible of 77,000 deceases in Europe, out of which 40 % in the case of women under 65. The incidence of this cancer, which means the number of new cases during a year, grows, but mortality reached a plateau level, which makes us notice that chances of survival are growing.
Risk factors Risk factors are known for a long time and they are:
1. Personal: early menstruation, absence of birth, a late first pregnancy (after the age 35), late menopause.
2. Inherited or Genetical: breast cancer antecedents in the case of closely related members of the family, suggesting the presence of genetic factors.
Apart from these factors, age is also a risk factor 7% of breast cancers affects women 40, and this percent grows with age: 18% in the case of 40-50 years, 32% in the case of 50-60 years and 43% in the case of women over the age of 60.
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October is breast cancer awareness month and Dr. Dara Richardson-Heron of The Susan G. Komen Foundation offers guidelines for breast cancer prevention and treatment.
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From: CBS
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Medical centers providing both mammography and clinical exams were more likely to detect breast cancer than centers offering mammography alone, but also far more likely to produce false positives, a Canadian study found.
In nine regional centers, all of which offer both types of screening, the sensitivity of an initial screen was 94.9% (95% CI 90.1 to 97.4), while in 59 affiliated centers offering both types, the sensitivity was 94.6% (95% CI 91.7 to 96.5).
By way of contrast, in 34 centers providing mammography alone, the sensitivity was 88.6% (95% CI 83.4 to 92.3), according to Anna M. Chiarelli, PhD, of Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto, and colleagues.
However, in the regional centers the false positive rate was 12.5% (95% CI 12 to 12.9) and in affiliated centers with both modalities it was 12.4% (95% CI 12.1 to 12.7).
That compared with a false positive rate of only 7.4% (95% CI 7.1 to 7.7) in the centers offering only mammography, the researchers reported in the Sept. 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
For each additional cancer detected by clinical breast examination, there were an additional 55 false positive screens. So women should be advised of the risks and benefits of having a clinical exam in addition to mammography, the investigators said.
Controversy has persisted regarding the value of clinical breast examination, with randomized trials finding similar mortality reductions whether or not a mammogram is accompanied by a clinical exam.
Moreover, the examiner’s experience and technique can affect the accuracy of clinical examination, and inappropriate referrals can increase cost, risk, and anxiety for patients.
Nonetheless, breast cancer experts contacted by MedPage Today and ABC News continue to disagree on the utility of clinical breast examination.
The Canadian researchers analyzed data from the Ontario Breast Screening Program to evaluate the accuracy of referrals for further assessment from the regional centers that began screening in 1990 and affiliated centers that began screening in 1995.
The screenings for the study were conducted between January 2002 and December 2003.
Clinical breast examinations were performed by 167 highly trained nurses, and standard craniocaudal and mediolateral oblique view mammograms were made using high-quality machines.
Among the 290,230 women who were screened, 232,515 had both clinical examinations and mammography, while 57,715 had mammography alone.
At centers offering both types of screening, the cancer detection rate for mammography alone was 5.9 per 1,000 and the false positive rate was 6.5%, while the detection rate with both types of screening was 6.3 per 1,000 and the false positive rate was 8.7.
“Therefore, with [clinical breast examination] an additional 0.4 cancers are detected per 1,000 women screened with an increase of 2.2 percentage points in the false positive rate,” they wrote.
This meant that for 10,000 women screened, an additional four cancers would be detected, and among the 9,937 women without cancers there would be an additional 219 false positive screens.
An editorial accompanying the study stated that these numbers represent “a steep price for the potential gains” of adding clinical examination to mammography.
For women to make informed decisions about their healthcare, they must understand the risks as well as the benefits of screening tests, wrote editorialists Mary B. Barton, MD, of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Md., and Joann G. Elmore, MD, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
The way this information is presented can influence patients’ decisions, they noted.
Positive framing, for example, emphasizes beneficial outcomes (four more cancers would be detected) while negative framing emphasizes the risks (for every cancer detected by examination there will be 55 false positives).
“Low-tech primary care interventions that can decrease the burden of cancer in women are extremely appealing. At the same time, ineffective practices, or those with even marginal net benefit, would be a disservice to our patients,” they wrote.
The study had limitations, according to the investigators. One was workup bias, with women being referred for a positive clinical examination being less likely to receive intensive follow-up than those referred because of an abnormal mammogram.
The findings also may have limited generalizability, because the nurses in the Ontario project were highly skilled and trained.
As the editorialists pointed out, clinical breast examination “must be done well if it is to be done at all.”
When contacted by MedPage Today and ABC News, Daniel B. Kopans, MD, director of the Breast Imaging Division at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, argued that only mammography has been proven to save lives, and that randomized trials are needed to determine if breast examination does too.
“The only breast cancer screening test that has been shown to significantly decrease the death rate from breast cancer in randomized, controlled trials … is mammography,” Kopans said.
“Those of us who developed the field of breast imaging recognized the importance of standardizing the technique, monitoring outcomes, and adjusting our approaches as we learned more and more about breast evaluation. I strongly urge this approach be applied to [clinical breast examination].”
Freya Schnabel, MD, director of breast surgery at New York University, was more supportive of clinical exams.
“I cannot imagine that anyone could advocate abandoning clinical breast exams, even in a screened population,” she said. “It’s clear that the pickup rate is low when patients are well screened, but superficial and central lesions are frequently missed on mammography, and young women with dense breasts represent a specific population where there is a substantial false negative rate for mammography, making clinical exam particularly important.”
She added, “As to the false positives on exam, many are resolved with simple, quick, relatively painless needle biopsies — not such a big price to pay.”
The study was funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation-Ontario Region, and editorialist Elmore received funding from the National Cancer Institute. The investigators did not report any conflicts of interest.
This article was developed in collaboration with ABC News.
What are the signs of breast cancer?
The chances of breast cancer in a teenager are close to zero. It’s mainly a disease of ageing – 80% of those diagnosed are over 50 (the average age for diagnosis is 60) and only around 5% are under 40. Fewer than 0.1% of all those diagnosed with breast cancer are under 30, and it’s almost unheard of in under 20s.
The American Cancer Society and other cancer organisations recommend that women begin breast self-examination at the age of 20. At the age, your breasts are still growing and developing; every day on this board there are questions from teenage girls who are terrified they have breast cancer because of perfectly normal hormonal changes. Of course it may be that you are asking on behalf of someone older; early breast cancer usually has no symptoms at all.
Symptoms of possible breast cancer are: change in size – one breast may have become noticeably larger or lower nipple change – if it becomes inverted (pulled in) or changes its position or shape rash – on or around the nipple discharge – from one or both nipples puckering or dimpling – around nipple swelling – in your armpit or around your collarbone (from lymph nodes) lump or thickening – that feels different from the rest of the breast tissue – BUT remember that most breast lumps are not cancerous. These are changes that an adult woman should be looking out for and reporting. In a teenager any changes to the breast are almost certainly hormonal.
Chapter Five of Breast Cancer? Breast Health! by Susun Weed
Available at www.Ash-Tree-Publishing.com
Perhaps no aspect of breast cancer is more widely publicized than screening mammography. Ads on television, in magazines, and in the daily paper urge women to deal with fear about breast cancer by having a yearly mammogram. We’re even told that doing this is a way to “really care for yourself.”
But screening mammograms don’t prevent breast cancer. A mammogram is an x-ray and x-rays cause cancer. The ads promoting regular screening mammography are paid for by those who stand to profit from their widespread acceptance and use-the manufacturers of the equipment and x-ray film. Whose health does this technology really benefit? Women’s health? Or corporate health?
Should you have a screening mammogram? At what age? How frequently? Science hasn’t agreed on answers to these questions.1 I believe that my anti-cancer lifestyle (see page xv) will decrease my risk of dying from breast cancer in a way that regular mammograms won’t. I care for my breasts with infused herbal oils, regular loving touch, organic foods, and healthy exercise-and forgo regular screening mammograms. Of course, you can do it all in the Wise Woman Tradition. The point is to pay attention to your breasts.
A mammogram uses radioactive rays to “see” breast tissues. X-rays are known to cause DNA damage in breast cells.
A diagnostic mammogram is used when a woman or her practitioner feels a lump and wants to see it. (Sonograms-a non-radioactive test-can be used instead.) Most diagnostic mammograms are not one x-ray, but a series of x-rays.
A screening mammogram is done on a healthy woman to determine if there are unsuspected signs of cancer, such as a shadow or micro-calcifications. A screening mammogram is not one x-ray, but a series of x-rays, usually two per breast, four in all.
Low-radiation mammograms are safer mammograms, but less radiation means a fuzzier picture. Standard x-rays-rarely used any more for breasts-create an easy-to-interpert high-radiation image. Xerograms use half that radiation, but are twice as hard to read. Film-screen mammography, the latest very-low-radiation exam, gives an image that’s even more difficult to interpret. More than 10 percent of all screening mammograms done at one large center in 1992 couldn’t be read and had to be redone.2
A 1994 study showed wide variation in the accuracy with which mammograms are interpreted. Understandably, those who read screening mammograms regularly are more accurate than those who rarely do; in some hospitals, however, work loads are so heavy that accuracy suffers from lack of time, not inexperience.
Roughly 8 out of 10 “positive” mammographic reports are “false positive,” that is, a subsequent biopsy does not confirm the presence of cancer. And as many as half (10-15 percent at an excellent facility) of all “negative” mammographic reports are “false negative.” 3
According to current data, if all American women 40-50 years old were screened yearly by mammogram, 40 out of every 100 breast cancers would be missed.4 If all women over 50 were screened, 13 out of every 100 breast cancers would be missed. Half of all breast cancers in women under 45 are invisible on a mammogram.5 Screening mammograms often miss the deadliest breast cancers: fast-growing tumors in premenopausal women.
Neither diagnostic nor screening mammograms detect cancer. Mammograms can reveal areas of dense tissue in the breasts. These areas may be cancer, or may be associated with cancer, or may be normal tissue, but a mammogram can’t tell.6 The only medically accepted way to tell is to do a biopsy. Over 80 percent of the biopsies done to follow up on a suspicious screening mammogram find no cancer.
Women find their own breast cancers most of the time. (Ninety percent of the time according to one English study.7)
Monthly breast self-exam (or breast self-massage) provides early detection at lower cost, with no danger-and more pleasure-than yearly screening mammograms.
Most breast cancers (80 percent) are slow growing, taking between 42 and 300 days to double in size. A yearly mammogram could find these cancers 8-16 months before they could be felt, but this “early detection” does little to improve the already excellent longevity of women with slow-growing, non-metastasized breast cancers.
The 20 percent of breast cancers that are fast growing are the trouble-makers. They can double in size in 21 days. Monthly breast self-exams are much more likely to find these aggressive cancers than are yearly mammograms. (A 21-day doubling cancer will be visible on a mammogram only 6 weeks before it can be felt.) If you massage or examine your breasts even six times a year, you can take action on fast-growing lumps. If you rely on mammograms exclusively, the cancer could grow undetected for months.
In a recent look at 60,000 breast cancer diagnoses in the United States, 67 percent were found by the woman or her doctor -and over half of these were not visible on a mammogram-while 33 percent were discovered by mammogram. (This may seem like a substantial number of cancers found by mammography, but the majority of them were in situ cancers, a controversial type of cancer that may-but often does not-progress to invasive cancer.)