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Breast Cancer Has Increase rapidly every now then, that is wcgist decided to enlighten us about the increase rate, preventive measures and Care.
THE number of cases of breast cancer is rising on every continent. According to some estimates, by the year 2000, about one million new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed throughout the world each year.
Is any woman safe from getting this disease? Can anything be done to prevent it? And what comfort and support are needed by those fighting this foe?
Most skin cancers are caused by ultraviolet rays from the sun. Most lung cancers are caused by smoking. But no single cause has been established for breast cancer.
However, according to recent research, genetic, environmental, and hormonal factors may play a role in breast cancer. Women who are exposed to these factors may be at increased risk.
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Family History
A woman having a family member with breast cancer, such as a mother, a sister, or even a maternal aunt or grandmother, has an increased likelihood of developing it. If several of them had this disease, her risk is greater.
One of our deep study we find that while hereditary factors are involved, they may account for only 5 to 10 percent of all breast cancers. “We think,” she explains, “that a block of others are due to not-quite-as-strong hereditary factors working in combination with the environment.” Family members having the same genes tend to share the same environment as well.
Environmental Factors
“Clearly there are environmental factors, broadly conceived, that are involved” in triggering the disease, said Devra Davis, a scholar commenting in the journal Science. Since the female breast is one of the most radiosensitive parts of the body, women exposed to ionizing radiation have an increased risk of breast cancer. So do those exposed to toxic chemicals.
Another environmental factor is diet. Some suggest that breast cancer may be a vitamin-deficiency disease and point to a lack of vitamin D. This vitamin helps the body absorb calcium, which may in turn help prevent uncontrolled cell growth.
Other studies link the fat in diet, not as a cause, but as a promoter of breast cancer. The magazine FDA Consumer stated that the death rate from breast cancer was the highest in countries like the United States, where the intake of fat and animal protein is high. It commented: “Japanese women historically have a low risk for breast cancer, but that risk has been rising dramatically, concurrent with a ‘Westernization’ of eating habits; that is, from a low-fat to high-fat diet.”
A recent study suggested that the large number of calories consumed in a high-fat diet may represent the real risk. Science News stated: “Every excess calorie raises breast cancer risk, with each excess fat-derived calorie posing about 67 percent more risk than calories from other sources.” Excess calories can put on excess pounds, and women who are severely overweight are thought to have about a threefold higher risk of breast cancer, especially women past menopause. Body fat produces estrogen, a female hormone that can act adversely on breast tissue, leading to cancer.
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Personal History and Hormones
Within a woman’s breast is a rich hormonal milieu that produces changes in the breast all throughout her life. Dr. Paul Crea, a surgical oncologist, writes in the Australian Dr Weekly: “In some women, however, the exposure of breast tissue to prolonged hormone stimulation . . . will set off a series of cytological changes that eventually result in malignant [cancerous] conversion.” For this reason it is thought that women who have had an early menarche, by age 12, or have a delayed menopause, in the mid-50’s, have a higher risk.
The additional estrogens received from ERT (estrogen replacement therapy) as a possible link to breast cancer has been the subject of much controversy. While some studies indicate that ERT creates no increased risk, other studies show a significant risk for long-term recipients. Considering the studies reviewed, the British Medical Bulletin of 1992 stated that the possibility exists that “non-contraceptive oestrogen increases the risk of breast cancer by 30-50%” after long-term use.
Reports on the relationship between oral contraceptives and breast cancer suggest little risk from use. However, there emerges a subgroup of women who are at higher risk. Younger women, women who have never had children, and women who have used birth-control pills for a long time may have as much as a 20-percent higher risk of breast cancer.
Yet, 3 out of every 4 women with breast cancer cannot point to anything specific that contributed to their having the disease. The question is therefore posed, Should any woman consider herself safe from breast cancer? FDA Consumer reports: “From the point of view of the clinician, all women should be treated as being at appreciable risk for breast cancer.”
Thus, women, especially those advanced in years, are vulnerable to this disease. Dr. Kelly comments that while there are various causes of breast cancer, ‘some of it, I suspect, is just because of getting older, and a misdivision of cells takes place.’
Why Vulnerable
Examining the makeup of the female breast explains why it is so vulnerable to cancer. Within it are ducts, tiny passageways, that channel milk from milk-producing sacs to the nipple. Lining the ducts are cells that divide and change continually in response to a woman’s monthly cycle, preparing her for pregnancy, lactation, and nursing her young. It is in these ducts where most breast cancers develop.
In the book Alternatives: New Developments in the War on Breast Cancer, researcher Rose Kushner explains: “Any routine that is constantly being upset by one interruption or another—even if it is perfectly natural . . . —is subject to a greater risk of errors.” She further states: “The overworked breast cell is always being bathed in some hormone that orders, ‘Stop doing that. Start doing this.’ No wonder so many of the daughter cells go haywire.”
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Breast cancer begins when an irregular cell divides, loses control of its growth mechanism, and begins to proliferate. Such cells do not stop reproducing, and in time they overwhelm the surrounding healthy tissue, turning a healthy organ into a diseased one.
Metastasis
When cancer is contained within the breast, the malignancy can be removed. When breast cancer has spread to distant sites in the body, it is called metastatic breast cancer. This is the most likely cause of death in breast-cancer patients. As cancer cells multiply in the breast and the tumor grows in size, cancer cells can quietly and secretly exit the primary tumor site and penetrate blood vessel walls and lymph nodes.
At this point tumor cells can travel to distant parts of the body. If they evade the body’s immune defenses, which include natural killer cells circulating in both the blood and the lymph fluids, these malignant cells can colonize vital organs, such as the liver, lungs, and brain. There they can proliferate and spread again, after making these organs cancerous. Once metastasis has begun, a woman’s life is in jeopardy.
Therefore, a key to survival is detecting breast cancer early in its development, before it has had a chance to spread. What can each woman do to improve the chances of early detection? Is there anything that can be done to help prevent breast cancer in the first place?
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