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Any cancer occurs when changes called mutations take place in genes that manipulate cell growth. Such mutations let the cells divide and multiply uncontrollably. 

Breast cancer is cancer that develops in breast cells. And the cancer forms in either the lobules or the ducts of the breast. 

The uncontrollable growth of cancer cells often invades other healthy breast tissue and can travel to the lymph nodes under the arms. Once cancer enters the lymph nodes, it can access a pathway to move to other body parts. 

Signs and Symptoms 

In its early stages, there might be no breast cancer symptoms. In many cases, a tumor may be too small to be felt, but an abnormality can still be seen on a mammogram. 

There are some common signs, and symptoms of breast cancer are:

  • A breast lump or tissue thickening that feels different from surrounding tissue and is new
  • Breast pain
  • Red or discolored, pitted skin on the breast
  • Swelling in all or part of your breast
  • A nipple discharge other than breast milk
  • Bloody discharge from your nipple
  • Peeling, scaling, or flaking of skin on your nipple or breast
  • A sudden, unexplained change in the shape or size of your breast
  • Inverted nipple
  • Changes to the appearance of the skin on your breasts
  • Alump or swelling under your arm
Types of Breast Cancer 
There are several types of breast cancer, and they are broadly divided into two categories:
Invasive and Noninvasive.
 
Invasive Breast Cancer
  • Invasive ductal carcinoma
  • Invasive lobular carcinoma
  • Inflammatory breast cancer
  • Paget’s disease of the breast
  • Angiosarcoma of the breast
  • Phyllodes tumors
Noninvasive Breast cancer
  • Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)
  • Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS)
The subtypes of Breast Cancer based on the genes cancer expresses are:
Treatment of Breast Cancer 
There are several ways by which breast cancer can be treated. It depends on the kind of breast cancer and how far it has spread. The treatments are:
 
Surgery: The two types of surgery are: 
  • breast-conserving surgery
  • mastectomy
Radiotherapy: Healthcare professionals use controlled doses of radiation to kill cancer cells in this therapy. 
 
Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy fast-growing cancer cells.
 
Hormone therapy: In this therapy, healthcare professionals use drugs to prevent hormones, especially estrogen, from fueling the growth of breast cancer cells. Some such medications are: tamoxifen (Nolvadex), anastrozole (Arimidex), exemestane (Aromasin), and letrozole (Femara), etc. 
 
Targeted therapy: Some of the targeted therapy medications are fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki (Enhertu), lapatinib (Tykerb), pertuzumab (Perjeta), and trastuzumab (Herceptin), etc. 
 
Immunotherapy: Healthcare professionals use immunotherapy to use a patient’s immune system to target cancer. The drugs atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy), etc.  
 
Nitin Goswami

Nitin Goswami joined us as an Editor in 2020. He covers all the updates in the field of Pharmaceutical, Business Healthcare, Health News, Medical News, and Pharma News.

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