Breast Cancer Awareness Month

By: Jeanette Rupar, LMT BCTMB

If you did not know, this month is breast cancer awareness month. I am sure that you know that there is alot of weird stuff that goes around this month. That it isn’t about saving boobies, it’s about saving lives. That it’s not about wearing pink, or posting strange comments on your facebook post.

But, we’ve all heard this stuff, right?

But what do we know about breast cancer? Did you know that:

  • 1 in 5 women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime.
  • Risk of getting breast cancer increases by double if a woman’s mother, sister or daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
  • 5-10% of breast cancers are linked to BRCA1/BRCA2 genes. Both women and men run a risk of getting breast cancer if either of these genes are mutated.
  • 85% of women who get breast cancer don’t have a family history of breast cancer.

Did you also know that there are different types of breast cancer? To name a few of the more common types:

  • Non Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. This type of cancer starts in the milk ducts and DOES NOT travel into the surrounding tissues.
  • Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. This is the most common type of breast cancer, with 80% of patients having this type. It is noted as invasive because it spreads from the milk ducts into the surrounding tissues.
  • Invasive Lobular Carcinoma. This type of breast cancer starts in the lobes that produce breast milk. This type of cancer isn’t as easily found as the ductal carcinoma’s.
  • Inflammatory Breast Cancer. This form of breast cancer is rare and can be aggressive. It doesn’t show up as a lump like other breast cancers, but it starts to redden and swell.
  • Metastatic Breast Cancer. You may also hear about this type of breast cancer. This is when the cancer has spread from the breast tissue into other areas of the body.

Yes, there are more subdivisions of the types of breast cancers, but I’m not going to get into that at this point. This information can always be found online.

And did you know that men can also get to breast cancer? There is a 1 in 833 chance of men getting breast cancer within their lifetime. (1)

Check yourself

It is always good for you to check for changes monthly (yes, men too). Check to see if there are changes to the shape of your breasts. If there are puckering, swelling, redness or discharge, as well as if you feel a lump where there used to be none, you should talk to your doctor. It is always better to be cautious about possible cancer than it is to let it go. Early detection will increase the chances of recovery.

Treatment

Treatment of breast cancer will be different for everyone. Some types of breast cancer grow through hormones (estrogen and progesterone). In this case, doctors can give you drugs to block those hormone receptors so that they will not feed the cancers.

Some types of cancer will not respond to hormone therapy, and will have to be treated with either radiation, chemotherapy or both.

Surgery may also be used in conjuction with one of these other methods, which will remove the tumor from the body. It may or may not mean removal of extra breast tissue, depending on how large the tumor is.

Bibliography
US Breast Cancer Statistics, breastcancer.org https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics

Types of breast cancer, breastcancer.org https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/types

Breast Cancer in Men, American Cancer Society https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breast-cancer-in-men (1)