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Breast Cancer Awareness: Educating the Masses and Searching for a Cure

By Megan Roth

It’s October 1^st, which means it is officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As such, we feel it necessary to pay tribute with an informational post concerning information and statistics related to the disease.

We all know just how common breast cancer is, but are you aware that the disease is the number one cancer to affect women in the United States? And did you know that there are slightly over two million women living in the United States and suffering from the disease right now, or that 40,000 of those women are expected to die from the disease this year? Terrifying, isn't it? What's worse, is that those statistics are just pertaining to women; they don't even begin to factor in the number of incidents and deaths that occur amongst men who suffer from the disease.

Though the disease is 100 times more likely to occur in females, it occurs in the same forms within men (generally amongst men between the ages of 60 and 70).

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, which means it differs from individual to individual (based on demographic factors as well as the literal composition of the cells themselves). However, despite those differences, the disease follows strikingly similar patterns. For example, breast cancer generally begins in either the milk ducts (ductal carcinoma, the most common form) or in the milk-producing glands (so-called lobular carcinoma, the second-most common form). There are also several additional forms; however, the aforementioned two occur most frequently.

Once a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer, it must be determined whether the cancer is non-invasive (in situ) or invasive. It is hoped that the cancer is non-invasive, which means that, at the point of diagnosis, the cancer had not yet spread to surrounding breast tissue. Conversely, if the cancer is invasive it means it has already spread to the surrounding tissues (which increases the likeliness of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes.

The most common breast cancer (in both form and type) is invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) begins in the milk duct and spreads throughout the breast and to other parts of the body via the bloodstream or lymphatic system.

Equally worrisome to IDC is invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) which accounts for approximately ten percent of all breast cancers. Though ILC is less common than IDC, it attacks the body in a similar way, beginning in the lobules rather than the ducts. One other differnce between IDC and ILC is the matter in which each can be detected; IDC generally occurs as a distinct, firm lump in the tissue, whereas ILC often resembles a fullness of area of thickening in the breast.

Regardless of the form, both the chances of developing breast cancer and the odds that a breast cancer sufferer will die from the disease increase with age.

Despite the discouraging statistics, it's important to remain optimistic. Research has come a long way in the last couple of decades and as awareness has increased, so have the odds of survival.

Look to tomorrow's post to highlight how to detect the disease and syptoms that are likely to occur...

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Megan Roth

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on October 01, 2008 (boomark / email).