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Posts Tagged ‘breast’

Breast Cancer Treatment in India is taken under Jaslok Health Group under experienced and certified medical team of physicians. The term “breast cancer” refers to a malignant tumour that has developed from cells in the breast. Usually breast cancer either begins in the cells of the lobules, which are the milk-producing glands, or the ducts, the passages that drain milk from the lobules to the nipple. Less commonly, breast cancer can begin in the stomal tissues, which include the fatty and fibrous connective tissues of the breast. Breast Cancer is the most common cause of cancer in women and the second most common cause of cancer death in women. While the majority of new breast cancers are diagnosed as a result of an abnormality seen on a mammogram, a lump or change in consistency of the breast tissue can also be a warning sign of the disease. Jaslok Health Group introduces recreational packages with the help of Medical Tourism to provide better benefits and recovery from the disease. Physicians providing Breast Cancer Treatment in India at Jaslok Health Group are professionally trained and certified from renowned institutions across the globe.

Breast Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of breast cells. To better understand breast cancer, it helps to understand how any cancer can develop. Cancer occurs as a result of mutations, or abnormal changes, in the genes responsible for regulating the growth of cells and keeping them healthy. The genes are in each cell’s nucleus, which acts as the “control room” of each cell. Normally, the cells in our bodies replace themselves through an orderly process of cell growth: healthy new cells take over as old ones die out. But over time, mutations can “turn on” certain genes and “turn off” others in a cell. That changed cell gains the ability to keep dividing without control or order, producing more cells just like it and forming a tumour.

Some Breast Cancer require the hormones estrogen and progesterone to grow, and have receptors for those hormones. Those cancers are treated with drugs that interfere with those hormones, usually tamoxifen, and with drugs that shut off the production of estrogen in the ovaries or elsewhere; this may damage the ovaries and end fertility. Low-risk, hormone-sensitive breast cancers may be treated with hormone therapy and radiation alone. Breast cancers without hormone receptors, or which have spread to the lymph nodes in the armpits, or which express certain genetic characteristics, are higher-risk, and are treated more aggressively.

Abnormal development of cells leads to the growth of tumour, when tumour is malignant in nature they are termed as cancer. Breast Cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in women today. Around the world breast cancer statistics shows that after lung cancer breast cancer is the second most death-causing factor in people who develops cancer. The risk factor of developing breast cancer increases with the age, it does not only relate to women, figures show that out of every 100 women there is one male who is diagnosed of breast cancer. Breast cancer does not mean a specific category of disease rather it is the different types of cancer generally found in breast is collectively termed as breast cancer. Though the most common understanding suggests that, abnormal growth of cells in the breast causes breast cancer.

Its incidence is in rise in the developing countries, may be due to the life style changes. Breast Cancer Ribbon TattoosThis cancer, the most accessible cancer; has generated much interest in the recent past in understanding its process of development, the genetics and developing more effective treatment modalities. The surgery has evolved from maximum dissection to minimal and more conservative approach. Newer chemotherapeutic drugs are coming up as well as more precision radiotherapy. Approach to breast cancer has become essentially multidisciplinary in the last decade or two. Here we will search literature to add more knowledge to our existing views on this cancer. The views expressed in it may not be conclusive, may be in a trial phase and does not anyway supersede the opinion of treating doctor of a patient.

Notch pathway in cell division and its inhibitors: The primitive cells during development of baby and also later in life are capable of differentiating to one or other cell types. This recruitment of daughter cells and their multiplication is largely controlled by what is called a Notch pathway. These primitive cells are called the stem cells; can form e.g. bone cell, muscle cell and heart cell etc. This notch pathway is also responsible for regulated tissue growth i.e. no excess or no less; through communication between the cells. It can be likened to cells having sensors on their outer membrane, represented by notch a protein. The communication may be something like this: one cell will say to its neighbor cell; “Hi, I am dividing to muscle cell; you need not go in that line”, “Oh yeah, you carry on; I am going in the line of breast cells”, would be the reply. Again to have controlled growth close contact between the cells is required. The Notch would be keeping close contact between cells, may be in a way something like this;”Hello my dear neighbor come closer and closer, do not go away.”

Any derangement in this notch may give rise to uncontrolled growth of cells. In cancer, there are stem cells which divide continuously to give rise to a visible tumor. These stem cells are resistant to conventional chemotherapy and could be the cause of recurrence of cancer, at least in some 1% of breast cancers; which also makes a large number. So the Notch inhibitors can be instrumental in controlling some cases of breast cancer recurrence, when used in addition to chemotherapy. “The Notch pathway regulates self-renewal of stem cells and research indicates that it also regulates cancer stem cell self-renewal, the impact of using a Notch inhibitor was to sensitize a significant proportion of otherwise treatment-resistant cancer stem cells. This supports the notion that a select sub-population of cells in breast cancer is largely responsible for disease recurrence and cancer spread.” I quote from a study’s lead author, Jenny Chang, M.D., professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. She and her team implanted mice with human breast cancer biopsy material that included breast cancer stem cells, and then gave them a Notch inhibitor (MRK-003) or a placebo. MRK-003 significantly reduced formation of clusters of tumor cells called mammospheres, when compared with placebo.

Are you worried about…breast cancer?

Many women worry about getting breast cancer| , sometimes because one of their relatives has developed the illness. This section explains:

Why having just one, or even two, relatives with cancer
does not normally mean that there is an inherited genetic link in your family.
What we know about the causes of breast cancer.
What you can do to help yourself.
Cancer genes/family history

Genes carry the biological information we inherit from our parents. They affect the way our bodies grow, work and look. Changes (mutations) in certain genes can increase the risk of breast cancer in family members who inherit the genetic change. But only a small number of breast cancers are thought to be due to an inherited altered gene running in the family.

Two gene changes – called BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations – can run in a family and increase the breast and ovarian| cancer risk of those family members who inherit the genetic change. But they are not common.

How does my family history affect my risk of developing breast cancer?

It is only likely that a genetic mutation that can increase your breast cancer risk is present in your family, if you have:

three close relatives from the same side of the family (your mother’s or your father’s family) who developed breast cancer at any age
two close relatives from the same side of the family who developed breast cancer under 60
one close relative who developed breast cancer at the age of 40 or under
breast and ovarian cancer on the same side of the family, or a male relative with breast cancer, or a close relative with cancer in both breasts.

Your close relatives are your mother, sisters or daughters. They are sometimes called your first degree relatives.

If your family is like this, and you are worried about developing breast cancer yourself, you might want to talk to your GP. They will ask you questions about your family history. If you have a family history of any unusual cancers/childhood cancers or you have Jewish ancestry or other ethnic background (where a faulty breast cancer gene is more common), you should mention that to your GP. If your GP thinks there’s a chance that you might have an increased risk of developing breast cancer because of your family history, they will refer you to a genetic counsellor, family cancer clinic or a cancer specialist.

All women, when they are 50, are invited to join the NHS Breast Screening Programme| and offered three yearly mammograms until they reach 70. Women who seem to have inherited an increased risk of getting breast cancer may be offered yearly mammograms, and sometimes MRI scans, from an earlier age.

Breast cancer is traditionally thought of as an exclusively female-related disease. But like breast cancer in women, breast cancer in men is the uncontrolled growth of the cells of the breast tissue.

Breast cancer in men can be just as dangerous as breast cancer in women. More than 1,700 men are diagnosed with male breast cancer each year. But because men often wait to report the symptoms of male breast cancer, the disease is more likely to have spread, leaving many men with less hope that treatment will lead to recovery.

Breast cancer in men accounts for approximately one percent of cases of breast cancer and about 0.2 percent of all malignancies in men, according to The National Cancer Institute. In women, breast cancer represents 26 percent of all cancers. However, all of the types of breast cancer seen in women can also occur in men, although some are quite rare.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that breast cancer in men results in approximately 480 deaths in men compared to more than 40,000 women who die of breast cancer each year.

The survival rate for men is lower than for women. Men have very little breast tissue and do not typically receive mammograms.

Also, men are not taught to do regular breast self-examination. No one knows the exact cause of breast cancer, but risk factors include age, family history of breast cancer, changes in the appearance of the breast and race. Breast cancer is diagnosed more often in White women than Latina, Asian and African American women.

Since breast cancer is 100 times more common among women, the general public does not hear much about breast cancer in men. Many people are unaware that men can develop breast cancer, and neither individual men themselves nor their physicians regularly examine men’s breasts.

Furthermore, when men discover signs of breast cancer, they tend to delay before seeing a physician. This is the main reason why medical researchers have a hard time studying breast cancer in men and the effect it has on the male population. Men do not believe they are susceptible to the disease.

For instance, actor Richard Roundtree, the man who personified masculinity in the iconoclastic blaxploitaion film Shaft, discovered a lump in his right breast in the 1970s. It was cancer.

“When I got the news, I was shocked,” said Roundtree, who has worked with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation which raises breast cancer awareness among women and men, as well as funds for research. “I thought I couldn’t possibly have breast cancer. Men dont get this, Roundtree once said in a USA Today interview. The actor was fortunate to catch his cancer early and received chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and a mastectomy.

Another celebrity to have had male breast cancer is Peter Criss, a founding member of the rock band KISS, who calls himself the luckiest man in the planet. Criss said getting medical treatment early at the first sign of trouble saved his life.

I have been doing research on cancer on many ways and for many years.

I have found out that for cancer breast reoval doctors usually prefer surgery.

On the the free site breastcancer.org the various ways of cancer breast removal are reported as following

Lumpectomy, also known as breast-conserving surgery, is the removal of only the tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue.
Mastectomy is the removal of all of the breast tissue. Mastectomy is more refined and less intrusive than it used to be because in most cases, the muscles under the breast are no longer removed.
Lymph node removal, or axillary lymph node dissection, can take place during lumpectomy and mastectomy if the biopsy shows that breast cancer has spread outside the milk duct. Some people qualify for the less-invasive sentinel lymph node dissection.
Breast reconstruction is the rebuilding of the breast after mastectomy and sometimes lumpectomy. Reconstruction can take place at the same time as cancer-removing surgery, or months to years later. Some women decide not to have reconstruction and opt for a prosthesis instead.

Prophylactic mastectomy is preventive removal of the breast to lower the risk of breast cancer in high-risk people.
Prophylactic ovary removal is a preventive surgery that lowers the amount of estrogen in the body, making it harder for estrogen to stimulate the development of breast cancer.
Cryotherapy, also called cryosurgery, uses extreme cold to freeze and kill cancer cells. Right now, cryotherapy is an experimental treatment for breast cancer.

There is always hope, remember.