Following risk factors increase chances of Breast Cancer

Reproductive risk factors

• Being younger when you had your first menstrual period
• Never giving birth, or being older at the birth of your first child
• Starting menopause at a later age
• Using hormone replacement therapy for a long time

Symptoms Some warning signs of breast cancer are:

• A lump or pain in the breast
• Thickening or swelling of part of the breast.
• Irritation or dimpling of breast skin
• Redness or flaky skin on the breast
• Pulling in of the nipple or pain in the nipple area
• Fluid other than breast milk from the nipple, especially blood
• A change in the size or the shape of the breast

Breast Cancer Treatment:

Your treatment plan may include one or more of the following, depending on the stage and type of your cancer: surgery with or without radiation, chemotherapy, other cancer drugs, and/or reconstructive surgery.

I) Surgery

Lumpectomy During a lumpectomy, a surgeon removes the cancer including some normal breast tissue around the tumor.

Mastectomy A mastectomy is the surgical removal of the breast. A mastectomy is most often recommended when there are multiple areas of cancer in your breast. Your breast is small or shaped in such a way that removal of the cancer will leave little breast tissue.

Removal of Lymph Nodes Sentinel lymph nodes are the first lymph nodes to which cancer is likely to spread. If the sentinel nodes show no cancer cells, then it is very likely that the other axillary nodes will also be cancer free and the nodes will require no further treatment. If the sentinel nodes do show cancer cells, depending on your circumstances, the surgeon may remove more lymph nodes in the armpit. The remaining nodes may be treated with chemotherapy, radiation, or hormonal therapy to control any remaining disease.

II) Chemotherapy

It uses drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body. They affect all of the cells of the body and not just the cancer cells in your breast. Chemotherapy can be given before or after surgery. Most chemotherapy is given in the veins. These treatments are usually given in an outpatient clinic such as a cancer center. Your doctor will use information about the stage and type of your cancer to decide which chemotherapy drugs are best for you.

III) Radiation Therapy

Radiation may be given before or after surgery. Radiation therapy uses high energy X- Rays to kill cancer cells. The amount of radiation therapy and how often you get it depends on:

• The size of your tumor
• The type of surgery that you have had n Your pathology report
• Your age and general health

IV) Hormone Therapy

It is another form of systemic therapy. It is most often used as an adjuvant therapy to help reduce the risk of the cancer coming back after surgery, but it can be used as neoadjuvant treatment, as well. It is also used to treat cancer that has come back after treatment or has spread.

V) Targeted Therapy

As researchers have learned more about the gene changes in cells that cause cancer, they have been able to develop newer drugs that specifically target these changes. These targeted drugs work differently from standard chemotherapy (chemo) drugs.