An Overview Of Breast Cancer
All about breast cancer treatments
Quote – “Your illness does not define you. Your strength and courage does”.
– Anonymous
The breast is one of the most sensitive areas of a woman’s body and is composed of many types of tissues. It comes as no surprise that there are many types of breast cancer as well. Like any other cancer, breast cancer also begins without any significant symptoms. However, awareness campaigns through various media have been a success, wherein most women have been taught the process of self-examination. This is important since even innocuous lumps and early detection of breast cancer has rendered cancers often curable in many cases through treatments, which may have otherwise been metastatic.
The mortality rates have also decreased consequently. In spite of all the improvements in detection, treatment, and management, cancers do go on to become killers.
What are the types of breast cancers?
- Angiosarcoma is a type of cancer that starts inside the blood and lymph vessels; this is a rare type of cancer.
- Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) is a common type of breast cancer. It is usually detectable in the initial stages and is curable. It has only low potential to be invasive.
- Invasive Lobular Carcinoma is a less common kind of breast cancer. It has its roots in the ducts of the milk-producing lobules of the milk glands in the breast, especially the portions that have broken away from the lobules.
This type of breast cancer has the capacity to spread an become metastatic, which also affects the treatments. Inflammatory breast cancer is also a rare type of breast cancer but progresses rapidly. Signs like swelling, dark pink to purple colorations, heating of the affected area, and pain are some of the signs that one should look out for. Paget’s disease is a kind of breast cancer that has its roots in the nipples and extends to the areola. The underlying link is usually ductal carcinoma and it usually affects only one breast. Male breast cancer is rare, but it does happen. Recurrent breast cancer is caused by cancer cells that have survived the treatments of an earlier cancer. It may recur locally or otherwise.
What are the diagnostic tests for breast cancer?
- Testing always starts from the simplest of the processes and progresses to the more complicated and precise ones – screening mammogram is the first step, followed by diagnostic mammogram, ultra-sonogram, MRI imaging, and finally, a core biopsy.
- In core biopsy, a special needle is guided into the tissue to the suspicious cells with the aid of imaging, and a core is extracted.
- These tissues are then studied by cytologists to identify the type of breast cancer, and also specify the stage and the grade.
What are metastatic breast cancer signs that may affect the treatments?
- Symptoms would depend on the organs that have been colonized by the invading cells.
- One of the common organs is the bone. The signs are swelling in the affected bone, progressively worsening pain, easy fracture, constipation, symptoms of spinal compression, and general symptoms like tiredness, anorexia, loss of appetite, etc.
- Another place where the symptoms occur is the brain. A progressively worsening headache, ever increasing pressure in the head, disturbances in vision, and nausea and vomiting are the common signs. The symptoms depend on how the organ is affected. Personality and behavioral changes are also seen in addition to these symptoms.
- Lungs also begin showing symptoms in some cases. These symptoms include a persistent cough that worsens as more areas begin to get affected. The inability to produce deep breaths and abnormal X-rays of the lungs are further signs.
- The liver is another susceptible organ for metastasized breast cancer cells. As more regions of the organ are plagued by the cancer cells, one gets jaundice that worsens, bleeding, itchy skin, yellow color of the sclera, and hydroperitoneum or ascitice.
What are the new treatments for metastatic breast cancer?
- Treatments like chemo, radiation, etc. work in some cases, but they also don’t in certain metastatic breast cancer cases.
- Some therapies have shown promise. One such therapy is immune therapy, which includes treatments for metastatic breast cancer such as passive immunotherapy (or monoclonal antibodies), active specific immunotherapy (or cancer vaccines), and non-specific immunotherapy. These are agents that try to make the immune system recognize cancer cells as foreign bodies and destroy them with normal immune reactions, which produce antibodies against these cells. Trial findings for these treatments have been hopeful.
- Advanced chemotherapy is one of the treatments for metastatic breast cancer in which new molecules are used. They have been proven to be very effective.
- Hormone therapy offers some hope for those who have hormone-sensitive receptors on their cancer cells. Estrogen, positive patient Estrogen, in this case, is given. It binds to the receptors and inhibits the growth of the cancer cells. The case with progesterone is similar.
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