Your-Mind-and-Body

Breast cancer is not a dark subject; it encompasses various types according to their area of occurrence and activity. Knowing about all types is necessary for prevention, and even during the course of your treatment, so that you know how to take proper measures and care of yourself.

Breast cancer can either spread to other parts of the body than its original site, or remain confined there. Depending on this, there are two major types of breast cancer. In situ or non-invasive breast cancer is when the cancer does not spread out. Ductal Carcinoma In Situ is the most common In Situ breast cancer. The milk ducts of the breast start developing cancer cells that do not metastasize or spread out, and this type of cancer is called Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. Mastectomy largely cures DCIS, and sometimes is all the treatment that is needed.

Metastasis occurs when the cancer cells do not remain in the site where they initially develop, but spread to other parts of the body and start malignant cell formation there. When this happens, the cancer is called Invasive breast cancer. The two commonest types of invasive breast cancer are Invasive Ductal Carcinoma and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma.

Seventy to eighty percent of all breast cancer cases are those of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Formation of cancer cells in the milk ducts of the breasts, which break through the ducts and spread to surrounding breast tissues and other parts of the body, is called Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. When such cells start forming in the milk lobules, and not ducts, and spread out, it is called Invasive Lobular Carcinoma. A distinguishing feature is that a lump is not necessarily formed in ILC, and usually the breast thickens as a whole.

It is not necessary that all breast cancers originate in ducts or lobes. Sometimes, breast cancer can also originate in the breast tissue, blood and lymphatic vessels in the breast and fibrous connective tissues. Breast cancer can also occur due to metastasis of cancer from other organs. These are uncommon types, and they include Inflammatory breast cancer, Paget’s disease of the breast, angiosarcoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, metaplastic breast cancer and osteosarcoma.

Even though these types are uncommon, they can be very aggressive, like Inflammatory breast cancer, which develops so rapidly that it can cause a lot of harm within a week. It is important to be well-versed with the symptoms and causes of each of these types.

Invasive breast cancers have grading from I to III. This is done by a comparison of the patient’s breast tissue to a normal breast tissue. Grade I cancer is good news, as the tissues are still somewhat normal, and have probably not spread too much. Grade III means the tissues have degraded badly, and have possibly metastasized to other organs.

As you can see, knowing about all types of cancers can help you recognizing symptoms early on and advise you on how to make your treatment more effective, along with giving you proper knowledge and information on your treatment.

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• What Are The Causes Of Breast Cancer
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  Metastatic breast cancer is the most advanced stage of breast cancer. Even after treatment, some cancer cells may not die and continue multiplying. These cells may spread to other parts of the body through blood or lymphatic vessels and start the development of cancer in those areas. This stage of the cancer is called metastatic breast cancer.
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  Of all the types of breast cancer, the one claiming more lives than not is Inflammatory breast cancer. IBC is a very aggressive cancer, and it gets its name from the symptoms women diagnosed with it show. This can occur in women of any age, and is fortunately, a rare type of cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer can also develop in men, though the chances are extremely thin.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 2:57 am and is filed under Cancer Survival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.