Women's Health: Risks and Symptoms of Breast Cancer

The mammogram you had show signs of breast cancer or the biopsy you had comes back positive for beast cancer. Those are the two most terrifying things that women can hear from their doctors. The fears that breast cancer elicits are loss of sexuality and body image, surgery and death.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women other than skin cancer in the United States. Each year there are more than 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer not only affects women, it affects more than 1,000 men in the United States.

The sad thing is routine breast screening exams are not recommended for men as part of their routine physical examinations. Men should follow the same doctor visits and routine screenings as women for detection and diagnosis for breast cancer.

There are different types of breast cancer. The phrase breast cancer is a general term for the types of breast cancer that are found and related to the breasts.

Breast Design

Milk is produced in the organ called the breast. The lobule glands in the breast produce breast milk. Ducts are tubes or channels in the breast that are used to transport the milk from the lobule glands to the nipples.

The breast cancer for a majority of women starts in the lobule glands or ducts. This is when the specific breast cancer names form for breast cancer diagnosis. Lobular carcinoma of the breast or ductule carcinoma of the breast is the cancer type for these two areas of the breast.

Lymphatics and blood vessels also make up part of the construction of the breasts. Lymphatics are small thin veins that collect and carry tissue fluid. The fluids from the breasts drain into the lymph nodes.

Lymph nodes are located in the arm pits. The lymph nodes filter the fluids that serve as a barrier for further spreading of cancer cells or bacteria that may be in lymph fluids.

While the lymph nodes do not always catch the cancerous cells or bacteria that can spread to other parts of the body. Once the cancer cells enter the blood stream, they can potentially spread to the bones, the lungs, liver and the brain.