All about Breast cancer

October is Breast Cancer month. Helping to share awareness amount all health related websites and online content, we’re going to share all month long everything related to this disease either on the blog or on our Social Media including Pinterest and LinkedIn. Feel free to join if you are not subscribed yet.

What’s Breast cancer ?

Cancer means the presence of abnormal cells that are growing out of control. It results from a disruption of certain cells that multiply and form a mass called a tumor. In breast cancer, cells can stay in the breast or spread throughout the body through blood or lymph vessels. Most of the time, the progression of breast cancer takes several months and even a few years.

Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in women around the world, both before and after menopause.

Did you know ? Men can also be affected with breast cancer; they represent 1% of all cases.

Types of Breast Cancer

There are different types of cancer that do not grow in the same way. Some are “aggressive” and grow very quickly, others “non-invasive” grow more slowly.

Noninvasive or in situ breast cancer

This cancer cells are confined in the breast. It forms inside the lactation ducts of the breast. This type of cancer has been diagnosed much more frequently with the more widespread use of mammography. Treatment for this cancer leads to a cure in almost all cases. Normally it does not spread. In exceptional cases, without treatment, it continues to grow and can then become “infiltrating” and therefore spread outside the lactation ducts.

Infiltrating breast cancer

They can spread to other organs: this is called metastasis.

• Ductal carcinoma: It forms in the lactation ducts. Cancer cells pass through the wall of the ducts.
• Lobular carcinoma: Cancer cells appear in lobules grouped together in the lobes. Then, they cross the wall of the lobules and disseminate in the surrounding tissues.
• Inflammatory carcinoma: A rare cancer that is primarily characterized by a breast that can become red, swollen, and hot. The skin of the breast may also take on the appearance of orange peel. This type of cancer progresses faster and is more difficult to treat.
• Other carcinomas (medullary, colloid or mucinous, tubular, papillary): These types of breast cancer are rarer. The main differences between these types of cancer are based on the type of cells affected.
• Paget’s disease: A rare cancer that manifests as a small sore on the nipple that does not heal.

Causes of Breast Cancer

There are several known risk factors for breast cancer. However, in most cases, it is impossible to explain the reasons for its occurrence in a particular person.

Mutations in genes, passed on from generation to generation or acquired over the course of life (exposure to radiation or certain toxic chemicals, for example, can change genes), can cause breast cancer. The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, for example, are genes for susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer. Women who carry mutations in these genes have a very high risk of cancer.

Although some women are a little more exposed than others, the most known factors of risk include :

• Women who have not had children or have had them after 40 years.
• Some women who already had breast lesions.
• Women who had early period (before 12 years old) and late menopause (after 55).
• Women who drink too much alcohol.
• Overweight or obese women.
• Some genetic forms of breast cancer, but they are rare: 5 to 8% of cases.

Symptoms of Breast Cancer

It is imperative to monitor:

• Any new lump in the breast or armpit.
• Any change in the shape or size of your breast.
• Any discharge from the nipple.
• Any noticeable change in the appearance of the skin of the breast or areola: cracks, pigmentations, etc.
• Nipple retraction (the nipple is turned inward).
• If you notice any of these signs, you should report them to your doctor, as they are the most common visual symptoms of breast cancer.

Otherwise, breast cancer most often presents as a small lump in the breast.

Note that a breast lump is not always cancerous. In most cases it will not be cancer, but a benign tumor, just like a small fibroid.

How to diagnose breast cancer?

When a person has symptoms or abnormalities, tests should be done to make a diagnosis. The medical protocol includes:

• A consultation with a doctor specializing in the treatment of breast cancer.
• A mammogram of both breasts, often combined with an ultrasound of both breasts and lymph nodes.
• In certain special circumstances, a breast MRI.
• An anatomopathological examination of samples taken from the abnormality. Most often, this sample is taken by micro or macro biopsies through the skin. When it is carried out under mammography, we speak of stereotaxic biopsy, under ultrasound, we speak of ultrasound-guided biopsy.

If, after these results, it is believed that the cancer cells may have metastasized, other imaging tests can be performed: chest x-ray, bone scintigraphy, CT scan, abdominal ultrasound, MRI …

Treatments of Breast Cancer

Women with breast cancer benefit from treatments chosen according to the stage of the disease, the nature of the cancer. Four techniques are mainly used: surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and targeted therapies.

Breast cancer surgery

For breast cancer, surgery remains the main therapeutic act, because it allows the tumor to be removed. Depending on the size of the tumor, the operation may or may not be supplemented by other treatments. Today, this surgery seeks to be the least traumatic.

Radiotherapy for Breast cancer

More than half of cancer patients receive radiation therapy alone or in combination with other methods. The rays destroy cancer cells by blocking their ability to multiply. The essentials on this support.

Chemotherapy for Breast cancer

Often, treatment with chemotherapy is based on taking drugs that will attack cancer cells, destroying them or stopping their growth. Both feared and hopeful, this treatment is the subject of many questions.

Hormonal therapy for Breast cancer

Some cancer cells are stimulated by hormones. These hormone-dependent cancers can be treated with hormone therapy.

If examination of the tumor shows that the cancer has hormone receptors, its development is therefore stimulated by sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone). Some medicines can slow or stop the progression of such cancer by blocking the action of hormones.

Targeted therapies and breast cancer

While hormone therapy may be considered the first targeted therapy against breast cancer, other newer drugs are opening up a new therapeutic avenue by specifically attacking the tumor.

Can we prevent Breast Cancer ?

The increase in the number of breast cancers is very real. Specialists wonder if changes in our lifestyles and in particular in our diet do not play a deleterious role. Also suspected, pollution and the effects of hormonal treatments. But other cancers have also increased over the past 20 years, such as prostate cancer, even though men do not take hormones.

Good lifestyle habits (physical exercise, a healthy diet including enough vegetables and fruits, stopping smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, etc.) and maintaining a healthy weight help reduce the risk of several types of cancer, including breast cancer.
It is recommended to avoid what will contribute to obesity, metabolic syndrome, or diabetes. We favor a moderate calorie diet rich in vegetables, fiber, flavonoids and good fatty acids.

Foods that increase the risk of cancer:

• Bad Fats : Among the lipids, it is better to avoid those contained in industrial oils.
• Red meat : is regularly implicated as a risk factor for cancer.
• Dairy products : the problem stems above all from the feeding of cows which means that the milk is rich in pesticides and hormones, which can in particular have a significant influence on hormone-dependent cancers.
• Soybeans : Soy is a vegetable that has hormonal, phytoestrogenic properties.
• Alcohol : interferes with hormonal metabolism, but it is also an important calorie intake and there is a direct toxic effect.

Of course, the fight against cancer does not only require individual actions but also collective actions: reducing the presence of chemicals in household products, reducing the use of chemical pesticides, developing cities to promote physical activity, etc.

The best thing to do is to check with doctors if anything seems different to detect cancer as early as possible in order to stop its progression and, if possible, to cure it.
Health Canada recommends mammography screening at least every 2 years for women aged between 50 and 69. Outside this age group, the need for screening varies from woman to woman, depending on her personal risk factors.
Breast ultrasound : Doctors sometimes suggest this test in addition to a mammogram, for example in women with very dense breasts or when the mammogram has not been successful.
Other tests are sometimes offered, as appropriate. Among the tests being studied is elastography, an imaging technique that uses ultrasound.

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