What is Breast cancer?

BREAST CANCER IS UNCHECKED GROWTH OF ABNORMAL BREAST CELLS:

What causes cells to become abnormal and reproduce wildly?

Damage to the DNA, the brain of the cell, which causes mutations and activation of oncogenes. Usually one mutation isn't enough; most cells must undergo several mutations before they become cancerous. (Sometimes the mutations must occur in sequence to create a cancer, sometimes random order will do it.)


What causes DNA damage?

Radiation, free radicals, genetic defects, electrical fields, chemicals, drugs, viruses, and metabolic stresses.


Injury to DNA is the initiating event for most types of cancer.

When mutations accumulate and oncogenes turn on, the cell is initiated. It is abnormal, but not cancerous. Initiated cells are diagnosed as atypia, dysplasia, or hyperplasia.
Damaged cells alone offer no threat to long life. To become threatening, the abnormal cells must be promoted. Promoters bring the cells nutrients so they can reproduce. (One of the strongest promoters of breast cancer is estrogen.) Although promoted cells can disguise themselves so the immune system won't recognize them, most of them are seen and eaten, or encapsulated by the body so they do no harm. Promoted cells are called carcinoma in situ. In situ cancer cells are frequently found in the breasts of women who die of causes other than cancer. In situ cells are reversible without invasive treatments and shouldn't be thought of as cancers.


The Cancer Cascade

Promoted breast cells, no matter how many of them there are, are not classified as invasive unless they spread out of the tissues of origin and into the surrounding tissues. This is the growth phase. When promoted cells enter the growth phase, they begin to form a tumor and to recruit blood vessels to help supply their immense need for nutrients. (The tumor may grow so quickly that cells in its center die from lack of nourishment.) The diagnosis now becomes infiltrating or invasive carcinoma.


The Cancer Cascade can be halted or reversed

Once a mass of abnormal, quickly-replicating cells has created a network of blood vessels, individual cancer cells can separate from the tumor and travel to other parts of the body. Because the breast is not vital to life, a breast cancer that stays in the breast is not life-threatening. But if breast cancer cells get to the liver, lungs, bone marrow, or the brain and continue to grow, they can hinder the functioning of processes necessary for life. The body attempts to check this spread by locking breast cancer cells in lymph node prisons and by sending immune system cells out to eat traveling cancer cells. If cancer cells are found in the axillary lymph nodes, the diagnosis is aggressive or metastasized carcinoma.
Not everyone whose cellular DNA is damaged will get cancer. Why not? All cells have the capacity to repair themselves or to shut down if they are mutated or damaged. Good lifestyle habits and ordinary foods such as lentils also reverse DNA damage.


Immunity against Cancer cells

The wear-and-tear of life gives rise to so many mutated, abnormal, initiated cells (even in a healthy person) that the immune system forms a constant stream of specialized cells to seek out and consume them. So long as the immune system is strong, and well supplied with nutrients, initiated and promoted cells can be harmlessly eliminated, checking the possibility of cancer.
Building powerful immunity isn't always enough, though. Cancer cells can trick the immune system into leaving them alone, and they can replicate so rapidly that they overwhelm the immune system with sheer force of numbers. One of the reasons breast cancer is so difficult to treat is that cancer cells are full of life. They no longer have the inner signal that tells them to die after reproducing.

Lets consider the incidence, types, treatment and other aspects of breast cancer in the subsequent posts...

Leading Cancers in Women, Men, & Children

For Women: Breast cancer is the leading cancer for women in the US. Lung cancer is the second most common form of cancer and colorectal cancer is third among white women. The number 2 and 3 cancers are reversed among black and Asian/Pacific Island women. For all women, the fourth leading cancer is cancer of the uterus.

For Men: Prostate cancer is the leading cancer for men in the US. It is followed by lung cancer and then colorectal cancer. The fourth most common cancer is race-dependent. It is bladder cancer for white men, cancer of the mouth and throat for black men; and stomach cancer for Asian/Pacific Island men.

For Children: The most common malignancies in childhood are leukemia, followed by brain tumors, and lymphoma.

What is Cancer?

        Cancer is defined as an abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread).

        Cells are the structural units of all living things. Each of us has trillions of cells, as does a growing tree. Cells make it possible for us to carry out all kinds of functions of life: the beating of the heart, breathing, digesting food, thinking, walking, and so on. However, all of these functions can only be carried out by normal healthy cells. The most fundamental characteristic of cells is their ability to reproduce themselves. They do this simply by dividing. One cell becomes two, the two become four, and so on. The division of normal and healthy cells occurs in a regulated and systematic fashion. In most parts of the body, the cells continually divide and form new cells to supply the material for growth or to replace worn-out or injured cells. For example, when you cut your finger, certain cells divide rapidly until the tissue is healed and the skin is repaired. They will then go back to their normal rate of division. In contrast, cancer cells divide in a haphazard manner. The result is that they typically pile up into a non-structured mass or tumor. 

      Sometimes tumors do not stay harmlessly in one place. They destroy the part of the body in which they originate and then spread to other parts where they start new growth and cause more destruction.This characteristic distinguishes cancer from benign growths, which remain in the part of the body in which they start. Although benign tumors may grow quite large and press on neighboring structures, they do not spread to other parts of the body. Frequently, they are completely enclosed in a protective capsule of tissue and they typically do not pose danger to human life like malignant tumors (cancer) do.

       Although cancer is often referred to as a single condition, it actually consists of more than 100 different diseases. These diseases are characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. Cancer can arise in many sites and behave differently depending on its organ of origin. Breast cancer, for example, has different characteristics than lung cancer. It is important to understand that cancer originating in one body organ takes its characteristics with it even if it spreads to another part of the body. For example, metastatic breast cancer in the lungs continues to behave like breast cancer when viewed under a microscope, and it continues to look like a cancer that originated in the breast.

       Briefly, cancer cells multiply uncontrollably, grow into a mass, spread to distant locations, hinder the proper functions  of normal cells, ultimately causing prolong illness or even death if not promt intervention is povided.