Breast Cancer Causes, Types, Signs, Symptoms, Stages, Treatment

One of the most common cancers prevailing among women is breast cancer. It is cancer that begins in the cells of the breast. Although it can occur both in the genders but breast cancer in men is less common as compared to women. But nowadays increase in breast cancer awareness programs has been seen everywhere. Simultaneously, the development of advanced treatment and diagnosis of breast cancer has also reached new heights. It has become easier to detect breast cancer at the early stage and treat them in a better way due to medical advancement.

Factors that contribute to increasing the survival rates of the breast cancer patients:-

• Detecting it at an early stage of cancer
• A better understanding of the disease
• Adapting new methods of treatment

Now, 3 main questions that arise in everyone’s mind are-

1. What happens to your body when you have breast cancer?
2. How chemotherapy is given for breast cancer?
3. What is the success rate of chemotherapy for treating cancer?

You will get answers to all these questions at the end of this piece of content.

      A. What happens to your body when you have breast cancer?

Breast cancer symptoms may include the following changes in the body:

• A lump is formed in the breast that is different from other tissues.
• There will be changes in the appearance of the breast.
• Dimpling of the skin of the breast.
• The nipple may get inverted
• Changes in the pigmented area of the breast around the nipple like peeling, drying and crusting of skins.
• Breast skin redness

Causes of Breast cancer

A genetic mutation that occurs in the DNA of the breast cells. But the reason behind this mutation is still not clear. Some research says, it occurs randomly, or may be due to heredity and sometimes due to bad lifestyle and environmental reasons. The tissue present in breast grows abnormally and then bunches together to form breast tumor. This tumor may be malignant or may not be.

Following groups are at high risk of developing breast cancer;

• Older age women
• Individuals with a family history
• Women’s who have started menstruating early
• Overweight
• High exposure to radiations 

Types of breast cancer

There different types of breast cancer that can occur in human beings. Some of the major types are:

1.      Ductal carcinoma in Situ

It is a type of cancer which is non-invasive and the cancerous cells are present in the lining of the milk duct.

1.  Invasive ductal carcinoma
2.  Here the abnormal cells develop in the lining of the milk duct but migrate to other surrounding tissues.
3.  Inflammatory breast cancer
4.  It is a rare type which that doesn’t form cancer and generally affects the skin.
5.  Metastatic breast cancer
6.  It is a type of cancer that develops in the breast but rapidly spreads to other parts of the body like lungs, brain etc.

Breast cancer stages usually divided into five starting from stage 0 which is a non-invasive stage where the cancer cells are located in the original location to stage IV which is invasive that spreads to other parts of the body. The other factor that decides the breast cancer stage is the size, lymph node presence.

There are different types of treatments for breast cancer like:

• Chemotherapy
• External beam radiation
• Internal radiation
• Surgery
• Minimally invasive surgery
• Cryosurgery

   B. How chemotherapy is given for breast cancer?

Treatment of breast cancer by chemotherapy

But with recent advancements in treatment and early diagnosis, the survival rate has increased a lot. Treatment with chemotherapy includes medicines that help in weakening and destroying the cancer cells both in the site of origin as well as the areas to which it has spread. It gives the best result when it is given after surgical removal of early-stage breast cancer called adjuvant therapy and also in the advanced stage so that maximum cell can be destroyed. Sometimes it is also given before surgery for shrinking the cells, it is called neoadjuvant therapy.

Some of the common breast cancer chemotherapy drugs are

• Anthracyclines like doxorubicin and epirubicin
• Taxanes like docetaxel and paclitaxel
• Capecitabine
• Eribulin
• Mitoxantrone

   C. What is the success rate of chemotherapy for treating cancer?

Although it has side-effects, the success rate is high. This is the reason people prefer this therapy. But, early detection is highly important. The quicker the treatment starts the faster the recovery is. 

Jiyo India has collaboration with best-rated hospitals in Delhi/NCR that offer best-in-class chemotherapy sessions with high success rates. We can rely blindly because this is what we do for years. We assist people in finding best treatment options.