Breast Cancer : The Second Most Common Cancer

Situation: The client is a 50-year-old female teacher who was notified of an abnormal screening mammogram. Diagnosis of infiltrating ductal carcinoma was made following a stereotactic needle biopsy of a 1.5 x 1.5 cm lobulated mass at the 3:00 position in her left breast. The client had a modified radical mastectomy with lymph node dissection. The sentinel lymph node and 11 of 16 lymph nodes were positive for tumor. Estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors were both positive. Further staging work-up was negative for distant metastasis. Her final staging was stage IIB. Her prescribed chemotherapy regimen is 6 cycles of CAF after a single-lumen central line was placed.

Staging is the process of finding out how much cancer there is in the body and where it is located. It is how the doctor learns the stage of a person's cancer. Doctors use this information to plan treatment and to help predict a person's outlook (prognosis). Cancers with the same stage tend to have similar outlooks and are often treated the same way. The cancer stage is also a way for doctors to describe the extent of the cancer when they talk with each other about a person’s case.

Breast cancer is not just a single disease. It may come in different types. One particular type and the most common is the invasive ductal carcinoma or the infiltrating ductal carcinoma. This is cancer that invades the surrounding breast tissues as it breaks through walls of the milk duct. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is another type of cancer. This is non-invasive, meaning it does not spread to the surrounding breast tissues. Another type is the triple negative breast cancer. This happens when estrogen, progesterone, and HER-2, which fuel cancer growth, are not present in the tumor. This also means that hormone therapy and drugs are ineffective for this type, but chemotherapy may an effective option. Inflammatory breast cancer is a fast-growing type that caused to penetrate the skin and lymph vessels. For metastatic breast cancer, cancer basically spreads to other body parts including the lungs, bones, brain, or liver. This is also classified as Stage 4 breast cancer. The above mention cancer types are the commonly seen cancer cases. However, there are other types which are not commonly seen such as the medullary carcinoma accounting for 3-5% of cancer types, tubular carcinoma making up about 2% of diagnosis, and mucinous carcinoma representing 1% or 2% of all cancer types (National Breast Cancer Foundation Inc., 2016).

Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in the US for women (http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics). Even though the diagnosis and treatment of this condition has improved dynamically over the past few decades, it is still one of the leading causes of mortality among the women in USA and all over the world. There are usually four stages of breast cancer (http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics).

(Treatment of breast cancer) Stage 1 breast cancer is indicated when the tumour is still within the breast tissue and is no larger then 2 centimetres. Stage 2 breast cancer is when cancer cells can now be detected within the lymph nodes of the armpit, the tumour is now greater than 2 centimetres. The tumour in stage 3 breast cancer can now be any size, cancer cells have spread to the chest wall and the lymph nodes near the breastbone. Stage 4 breast cancer is also know as invasive or metastatic breast cancer. The cancer cells have spread outside of the breast to other organs and tissues of the body. (Breast Cancer, Kathleen N. Lohr)

There are different types of breast cancer that could be used in planning treatment and new therapies. Authors of Mayo Clinic’s Breast Cancer page have written, “Your cancer's stage helps determine your prognosis and the best treatment options.” Therefore, many studies separate breast cancer into four molecular subtypes (“Molecular Subtypes”). Those subtypes would

All specialists specialize in different things such as surgery, radiation therapy and others in chemotherapy. Treatment plans are designed to meet needs of people with cancer. Decisions for breast cancer are based on, the stage of the breast cancer. Treatment options for breast cancer are surgery, in most cases a woman would be able to choose which type of breast cancer she would like to do. Although these are the options, breast-conserving surgery, followed by radiation therapy or modified radical mastectomy. Other surgical procedures that may be done include axillary lymph node dissection or sentinel lymph node biopsy offered in certain situations. Radiation therapy external beam radiation therapy is always given after breast-conserving surgery. It is sometimes given after a mastectomy. Systemic radiation therapy may be asked to be done for women with breast cancer that has spread to large areas of the bone, this is called bone metastases. Chemotherapy is an option for breast cancer that is early stage. The chemotherapy drugs used depend on the stage of breast cancer. Chemotherapy includes many drugs. Breast cancer is mostly treated with an anthracycline, a taxane or both types of drugs. Hormonal therapy is offered for hormone receptor positive breast cancer that is either early stage with a low risk of recurrence, locally advanced, advanced or recurrent, and the type of hormonal therapy offered will depend on whether or not the woman has reached menopause. The type of biological therapy offered will depend on the HER2 status of the breast

Stage One is where the cancer is only on one part of the body and it can be surgically removed and the cancer is gone entirely. Stage Two is where it spreads to other parts of the body and its treated with surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. Stage Three cancer is when the cancer has really advanced but the treatments are the same. Stage Four is the deadliest stage, which is where the cancerous tumours spread to several locations.

Breast cancer is a disease that comes unexpectedly; many people tend to overlook the symptoms. There are different types of breast cancers that require treatments and surgery. The course of treatment varies from patient to patient because there are many factors that can contribute to a patient’s treatment plan. Once the plan is in place, there are many things that will need to be done in order to ensure that the cancer will not return. Trying to beat cancer can be a long, extraneous, and in some cases a fatal process. Its important to catch cancer at its earliest stage. Knowing the symptoms of certain cancers may just save a life.

Methods We reviewed the medical records of all breast cancer patients presented at our institution with stage IV disease between January 2010 and December 2015. Patients were divided into two groups; patients who did surgery for

The studied group was divided into three groups: group A included 92 breast cancer patients with age ranged from (23-70 years). Group B included 25 patients with benign breast and their age ranged from (21-43 years) and group C (the control group) included 16 subjects with age ranged from (20-65 years).

There are many different types of breast cancers but typically they are classified depending on where it is found in the body. Breast cancer can be classified as two things, invasive or non-invasive. Non-invasive means it does not spread and invasive means it does spread. There are various types of invasive breast cancers but the most common is invasive ductal carcinoma.

In September of 2011, Tami Cox Billings was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She had a tumor that was larger than her heart. She went under intense chemotherapy. In April of 2012, she got a bilateral mastectomy with lymph nodes removed. She was still undergoing chemo and radiation for an additional 4-5 months. When she went to the doctor in October of 2013, for a checkup, the cancer was gone! Although Tami and her husband Kim’s euphoria was soon diminished. On Christmas Eve, Tami was getting ready for a shower, and found a new lump. A biopsy of the area was taken and the results were, metastatic breast cancer. Cancer was found in the central lymph nodes on her chest, in her right lung middle lobe, and along the right side of her

There are four stages of breast cancer. The Stage 0 is noninvasive breast cancer, that is, carcinoma in situ with no affected lymph nodes or metastasis. Stage zero is the most favorable. Now Stage 1 breast cancer is less than two centimeters in greatest dimension and is only in the breasts. In Stage 2, the cancer is no larger than two centimeters but it has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm. The

Women diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in which the tumour is two centimeters or smaller in size and the cancer has not spread outside the breast can be fairly optimistic they will beat the disease. The odds are also very good for Stage 2 in which the cancer has reached the lymph nodes. The five-year survival rate for this group is about 86 per cent.