Breast Cancer: How To Prevent It

Is breast cancer treatable and what can we do to prevent it? Something all women don’t know about is how to prevent it and what causes it. “Breast cancer is a disease in which cells in the breast grow out of control,''(CDC, 2018). Everyone says that is usually only found in women but that’s not right. No one usually gets the disease more than another person. We can all prevent this by doing the right treatments. There are four stages of breast cancer. But with treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, biological therapy, and radiation therapy, but there are also some medications you can take. It’s deadly if you don’t treat it. If you watch out for the symptoms and catch them on time, you will be able to treat them.

It will affect mostly your breast there is also different kinds of breast cancer which are Invasive Ductal Carcinoma and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma. Invasive Ductal Carcinoma is “cancer cells grow outside the ducts into other parts of the breast tissue”(CDC, 2018) and for Invasive Lobular Carcinoma “cancer cells spread from the lobules to the breast tissues that are close by”(CDC, 2018) they both can spread to your whole body which means it can go to your brain, liver, and other parts which can be dangerous. Some stages explain what will happen if you don’t treat it right away stage zero “known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the cells are limited and have not invaded surrounding tissues”(Felman, 2019) stage one “the tumor measures up to 2 centimeters (cm) across. It has affected and lymph nodes or there are small groups of cancer cells in the lymph nodes”(Felman,2019) stage two “the tumor is 2 cm across, and it has started to spread to nearby nodes, or is 2-5 cm across and has not spread to the lymph nodes” (Felman,2018) stage three “the tumor is up to 5 cm across, and it has spread to several lymph nodes or the tumor is larger than 5 cm and has spread to a few lymph nodes” (Felman, 2018) stages four “cancer has spread to distant organs, most often the bones, liver, brain, or lungs”(Felman, 2018). Everyone can get this disease no race or ethnicity will get it the most and even if you eat healthily or are not you can still get it. “If a close relative has or has had breast cancer, a person’s chances of developing breast cancer increases”(Felman, 2018).

For this type of disease, they usually complain about their breasts most of the time and how their body is changing but if they are in stage four they will complain about other things. Not everyone has the same symptoms, but some of the patients don’t have any symptoms. For the people who do experience the symptoms, they have “new lump in the breast or underarm (armpit), thickening or swelling of part of the breast, Irritation or dimpling of breast skin, redness or flaky skin in the nipple area or breast, pulling in of the nipple or pain in the nipple area, nipple discharge other than breast milk, including blood, any changes in the size or the shape of the breast, pain in any area of the breast” for stage four is different since it goes all through your body it’s more focused on your whole body changes not only your breasts so some of the symptoms could be “fatigue, difficulty sleeping, digestion difficulties, shortness of breath, pain, anxiety, depression”. To diagnose breast cancer you will have to take a couple of exams like breast ultrasounds, diagnostic mammogram, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), and biopsy, for these exams they will only look at your breast to detect if there is anything there that shouldn’t be there.

Yes, there is a couple of treatment which I will only talk about three of them but keep in mind “ breast cancer is treated in several ways. It depends on the kind of breast cancer and how far it has spread” (CDC,2018). Someone with breast cancer could get surgery “ an operation where doctors cut out cancer tissue”(CDC,2018) for this test “you’re more likely to have this procedure when the cancer isn’t in your lymph nodes, or if you’re having a mastectomy to lower your risk of getting breast cancer” (WebMD,2019). Chemotherapy “ using special medicines to shrink or kill the cancer cells. The drugs can be pills you take or medicines given in your veins, or sometimes both” (CDC,2018) this therapy helps “if cancer has recurred or spread, chemotherapy may control the breast cancer to help you live longer”(MayoClinic, 1998-2019) Hormonal therapy “ blocks cancer cells from getting the hormones they need to grow”(CDC,2018) for this therapy “there are several types of hormone therapy, which uses different ways to keep estrogen from helping cancer grow”(AmericanCancerSociety, 2019). There are also medications you can take which are mostly prescribed by a doctor, so you just can’t go buy them anywhere. For example, Tamoxifen some sides effect for this drug are “can increase your risk of stroke or blood clots” (......) another medication that could be taken is Anastrozole some side effects of it will be “allergic reactions, shortness of breath, and bone fracture”, another example is Methotrexate some side effects are “kidney problems, liver problems, and nerve problems” for this on the drug it says “Avoid drinking alcohol”(......). There are more medications they can take, but the doctor will let them know which one is best for them.

In conclusion, breast cancer can be dangerous if we don’t do the right things to control it. So when we go to the clinic we can notify our provider of any changes in our body and mostly in our breast so we can prevent getting breast cancer, because the longer we wait we can actually be damaging other organs in our body.