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Risk factors of breast cancer essay
Risk factors of breast cancer essay
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Jessica Johnson
Human Sexuality Th 6-9 p.m.
5/8/14
The Dangers of Breast Cancer
The risks of getting cancer in this day and age has been increasing at a rate that could be detrimental to the human race if we do not act now. It is scary to think that you or someone you love and care about will get some type of cancer in their life time. Although there are many different types of cancer that is in existence today, the main focus is breast cancer. We are going to explore the causes breast cancer, the stages, how we can treat it and what precautions that can be taken to help lower ones risk of getting breast cancer. In America a baby girl born today has a 1 in 8 chance of getting breast cancer sometime in her life. These statistics do not seem so scary until they are put into perspective. Every three minute a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer and one will die every 13 minutes in a given day. If these rates of breast cancer continue to rise there will soon be a one in one baby girl born that will et diagnosed with breast cancer. This is the future of our world that we are talking about here and no one seems to be changing the main factors that contribute to breast cancer. There are many different suspicious causes but one thing that is clear is that an unhealthy environment has an enormous impact on women and their development from babies to women.
There is not one factor that is known to cause breast cancer solely, but there are a combination of factors that all work together in allowing these cancer cells to reproduce and invade. Gender is a big factor in breast cancer as the majority of people who get breast cancer are women. Men are capable of getting breast cancer but the likeliness of men getting breast cancer is very min...
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...therapy. Surgery entails partial mastectomy, full mastectomy and a radical mastectomy. Woman of course want to be able to keep their breast in tact but in some cases it is necessary to emoted part of the breast or the whole breast. Partial mastectomy only removes part of the affected breast depending on how big the tumor is and the location in which it is placed. A full mestetocomy is where the full breast is removed along with other tissues nearby if necessary which is known as radical mastectomy. Many times women go through numerous reconstructive surgeries to reshape their breast attempting to construct them as closely as possible to their original breast. Chemotherapy is a universal treetment for every stage of breast cancer whether doctors are using pre surgery to help shrink tumors or post surgery to ensure that cancer cells do not show their ugly face again.
What is radical surgery's role in eradicating breast cancer? Radical surgery is the extirpation of an area of the body that is locally ridden with disease. Typically, it is an extremely risky surgery and was once thought to be the solution to every type of cancer, excluding brain cancer. Today, this type of surgery most often deals with various different types of local cancer. In the case of breast cancer, radical surgery is used to remove all cancerous cells from the breasts. The name primarily associated with this bold, medical advancement would be Dr. William Stewart Halsted. Although Halsted did not invent the concept of radical surgery, he did perfect it and bring it to its extreme. Dr. Halsted paved the way for today's breast cancer treatment, and modifications of his courageous surgeries are still performed today. Without his risky radical mastectomy, the world would be a lot farther behind in the hunt for a cure for breast cancer.
At this point in time, scientists and doctors have yet to discover the specific causes for breast cancer. However, what is known are the different risk factors that may trigger or put women more at danger of acquiring this disease. Aged women who have experienced menopause are more vulnerable at containing this disease. Women are also more at risk if breast cancer is common within their family because it is hereditary. In addition, smoking and drinking are other factors that can put women at risk as well (Stephan, 2010). Obesity in particular is a huge risk factor. Women who are overweight, especially those who have a thicker upper body, are more likely to develop malignant cancers in the breast than a healthy woman (Vona-Davis and Rose, 2009).
Breast cancer is most commonly diagnosed in Stage I and Stage II, where the size of the tumor is less than five centimeters in diameter. In these situations, surgery is often the second treatment option after chemotherapy and radiation therapy, both of which are used to shrink the tumor to a manageable size first. If the patient chooses to, the ...
For cancer patients there are several treatment options. Surgery can remove cancerous tumors, chemotherapy uses drugs for treatment, and radiation therapy. The doctor in charge of the patient’s treatment may also choose to use radiation therapy. “Radiation
Breast cancer is a type of cancer originates from breast tissue, generally from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas whereas from ducts are called ductal carcinomas. (Ref: Breast Cancer, National Cancer Institute) Invasive breast cancer is breast cancer that has spread from the point of origin in the breast ducts/lobules to the surrounding normal tissue cells. In exceptional cases, breast cancer can start in at other sites in breast. Breast cancer occurs in both women and men, though male breast cancer is uncommon.
About 12% of women in the United States will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, more than any other type of cancer (www.breastcancer.org, 2015). Many people lack the knowledge of how breast cancer is developed. Some people think they will not get cancer because they do not smoke cigarettes, but this is not the only cause of cancer developing in the breast. Anyone can get cancer. Everyone is potentially at risk for developing some form of Cancer (American Cancer Society, 2015).
Breast Cancer is a disease that can sometime lead to ovarian cancer and has caused a lot of women’s death. “About five to ten percent of breast cancer cases are thought to be hereditary, meaning that they result from gene defects called mutations inherited from a parent”. Related Risks early menstruation, oral contraceptives and child bearing 20 percent. (1)An environmental risk is that toxins can damage breast DNA. Over time damaged DNA can lead to cancer. Your risk of developing breast cancer increases as you get older. “1 of 8 breast cancer are found when women are younger than 45. 2 of 3 breast cancer are found in women age 55 years or older 75 percent greater chance”.(1) Breast Cancer can lead Peutz Jeghers syndrome the effects of Peutz Jeghgers is spots on your lips and in their mouths. Women with no children or who had a child after age 30 have slightly higher breast cancer risk. “Screening for breast cancer is early diagnosis increases chance of survival and annual mammogram after age 40”. Women who took Diethylstilbestrol while pregnant could have a slightly higher risk of developing breast cancer. Birth control peals also cause higher risks 40 to 50 percent for breast cancer risk calms down after they have stopped taking them.(1) Using combined hormone therapy after menopause increase the risk of getting breast cancer , it also increase women chances of dying from it. If you are over weight or obese after menopause greatly increase breast cancer risk 20 percent. Drinking alcohol can cause a major effect for you to start developing breast cancer the risk increase the more you drink. Tobacco smoke, Night work, Antiperspirants, Bras and Induced abortion. Breast cancer takes a lot of toll on women and men of all races and...
According to Breast Cancer Statistics, Breast cancer usually occurs in women between the ages of 35 and 65, even though fifty percent of all breast cancer is of women sixty-five and older (Breast Cancer Statistics, 2008). Although the cause of cancer is unknown, there are factors that increase the chances of getting it. These facto...
In life we come across many struggles and hardships. Some have more struggles then others but we all have them. Breast cancer could be one of those struggles whether male or female. Breast cancer is not just something that a woman can get like most people believe. Anyone can get it. In this essay you will about what breast cancer is, some symptoms, how it is treated, and my personal experience with it. Most people do not know what breast cancer is they just know that it is cancer in the breast.
Treatment for primary, localized breast cancer commonly includes surgical interventions based on tumor type, size, and stage. Certain procedures such as a local excision or lumpectomy conserve more of a woman’s breast than others, where only the breast lump and surrounding area of tissue are removed. A mastectomy is a more radical procedure that removes the entire breast. After a mastectomy, some women choose to have breast reconstructive surgery to restore their sense of body integrity (LeMone et al., 2011). Recently, surgical techniques have improved, resulting in less radical and invasive surgeries. The increase in breast conserving surgery has been related to screening mammograms. On average, screening for breast cancer detects tumors in smaller and earlier stages, enabling patients to begin treatment before the cancer advances to more invasive stages (Watts, 2013).
In the United States, starting from the first breast cancer case in 1930s to today, a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer increases to one eighth (Gray et al.). Continuously increasing breast cancer rate has caused a lot of concerns among not only ordinary people but also scientists. For decades, scientists have been working on the causes of breast cancer in order to find the corresponding methods of treatment. However, only about 25% of the breast cancer cases got explained (Brody et al.); till today, heredity, lifetime exposure to environmental estrogen (the female sex hormone), and the dietary fat are the only major known causes (“Cover Story: Breast Cancer and Environment”). For the 75% unexplained breast cancers cases, scientists, through various of researches, have come up with several hypothetical breast cancer causes, in which synthetic chemicals and environmental radiations are the major ones.
Cancer has become the one of the most feared things for human beings. The various type of cancer have been discovered and there are still a lot of it that undiscoverable. Cancer is a complex disease that have a group of disease. The cancer itself cannot be describe by words. The causes of this cancer is still not being able to be discovered fully. There are only minor factor that can lead to this disease. The carcinogens are believed to be one of the causes that lead to cancer such as asbestos, radon gas, tobacco, PVC and much more from our chemical industries. The environment especially near to the industrial that produce chemical waste can be one of the causes lead to cancer. Cancer also have relation with our age, lifestyle, and diet and also can be genetically inherited. It is believed that older people have higher tendency to get cancer than younger people. Our lifestyle and diet also plays a role causing a cancer by our daily life routine. Smoking tobacco and eating unconsciously (still in research) can also increase the possibility to get cancer especially lung cancer that cause by smoking tobacco. There are several cases, cancer were inherited from their parents. Various type of viruses such as HIV, HPV, EBV and many more virus has a high capabilities to increase the chance a patient to get a cancer because these viruses lower their body immunity to disease.
Even though the exact cause of cancer is unknown, there are many factors that increase your chance of getting the disease. These factors only account for only 30% of all cases of breast cancer. The other 70% are unknown.
Historically speaking breast cancer has been around for hundreds of years. Thankfully the treatment has improved. Patients who get the cancer removed and take care of themselves after, for example, by exercising and eating healthy, will live longer. There are many risks that increase the likelihood of developing breast cancer, for instance, age, family history, and race. A women who made history with breast cancer was Betty Ford, Betty was one of the first lady’s to speak openly about her disease. Betty encouraged women who have been affected with the disease to go to their doctor as soon as possible and told women who had shared that they didn’t have breast cancer to do self breast exams regularly and get mammograms. She also said when women get diagnosed with it don’t be embarrassed. Treatments in the past were pretty good and quite the same compared to the treatments given to people now, for instance, mastectomy’s which was the primary...
“It has become a part of the accepted wisdom to say that the twentieth century was the century of physics and the twenty-first century will be the century of biology. ”-Freeman Dyson I strongly believe that studying what you passionately admire would take you to the peak of your career. At school, I would always ask my teachers about how can so many genes and proteins communicate with each other to maintain the body’s homeostasis and what might be the underlying activities of the cells. It was this passion and curiosity for biology ever since my childhood that drove my interest to take up Biotechnology as my profession.