Sight:– Breast
Sex Prediction:– Female. Very Rare In Male
Age:– Starting From 20 Years. Older Age Group More Susceptible.
Incidence:– Most Common Cancer In Women In Developed Countries.
Risk Factors:
- Old age
- Family history
- Early menstrual period/ Menarche
- Late Menopause
- Hormone replacement Therapy
- First Baby Conceived late in Life (but a healthy lifestyle can make up for it. Talk to a doctor)
Treatment
Screening:
- Self Breast Examination; Link to NCCN Guidelines/Breast Cancer
- Clinical Breast examination; Link to NCCN Guidelines/Breast Cancer
- Screening Mammogram; Link to NCCN Guidelines/Breast Cancer
- Should start screening at the age of 20
Diagnosis Of Breast Cancer:
- Clinical Examination
- Lump in the breast or abnormal screening results
- Test of breast tissue is the only way to know if the patients has Breast Cancer
- Breast tissue needed for confirmation. Needle biopsy of Breast tissue are common and causes little pain
- Tests that take pictures of our body can tell if the cancer has spread like ultrasound of abdomen, X-ray of chest, Whole body PET Scan
- Tumor tests can tell if the hormone or her 2 Protein help in cancer growth
- Grouped into stage 1-4 based on how likely they are to act
- Early stages of Breast Cancer are more likely to be cured
Symptoms Of Breast Cancer:
1. Lump in the breast
2. Abnormal fluid or bloody discharge from the nipple
3. Any changes in the nipple aerola complex
Breast Cancer Treatment:
1. Surgery is usually considered the standard procedure of treatment
2. Based on post surgery tissue reports, treatment options are chemotherapy, Radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy or combination of all.
Surgery
Most Patients with Breast cancer will have surgery. There are two common types of surgery for remaining tumors in breast tissue: Lumpectomy and mastectomy.
- Lumpectomy: the entire breast lump with small normal breast tissue is removed it is also called as the breast conserving therapy.
- Mastectomy: A mastectomy surgically removes either large part of the breast or the whole breast.
- Lymphadenectomy: This is the Surgery to remove lymph nodes.
Chemo Therapy:
Chemotherapy is the process of using drugs to kill cancer cells. Usually people refer to this process as chemo. It can be either given orally in the form of a pill or intravenously with a needle. Chemotherapy gradually shrinks the tumors that are larger than 5 cm, which are usually not suitable for surgery. This process is also called neodjuvant chemotherapy.
Radio Therapy:
Radiotherapy uses a ray of high energy particles to wipe out cancer cells. It is required to kill cells that get left behind even after surgery. Radiotherapy van is given in two ways.
- External beam radiation
- Brachy therapy
External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT):
Delivers radiation from a machine outside the body this type of radiation therapy is most given after lumpectomy as well as mastectomy depending on post surgical tissue reports. Radiation is given to the entire breast with an extra dose of boost to the site of the tumor. It is usually given 5 days a week for 6 to 7 weeks.
Brachy Therapy:
Brachy therapy is also called interstitial radiation . It involves placing radioactive objects near to where the tumor was removed. Brachytherapy may also be given to boost EBRT in women who received lumpectomy.
Hormone Therapy:
If your breast cancer is Hormone receptor positive it is very likely that hormone therapy will be a part of your treatment. Estrogen is a hormone made by ovaries and in small amount by adrenal glands and fat. It can cause breast cancer cells that have hormone receptors to make more cancer cells blocking estrogen from working and lowering estrogen levels that helps stops breast cancer from returning. They are three types of hormone therapy
- Antestrogen
- Aromatese inhibitors
- Ovarian ablation.
Targeted Theory:
Some cancer treatments are made to affect only cancer cells and not normal cells this is called targeted theory. Trastuzumab is an example of targeted theory for cancer cells with high amount of HER2 protein studies says that it is an effective treatment for HER2 positive early stage cancer and metastatic breast cancer. Adjuvant Trastuzunab is intravenously given for one year. It is commonly started when chemotherapy starts and is continued when chemotherapy is completed. If the drug regimen is not finished before surgery it may be completed afterwards.