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When someone well-known such as Christina Applegate is diagnosed with breast cancer, many adult women become concerned as to what the future holds for them.

While it’s true that 1 out of 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her lifetime, there are also a lot of misconceptions about the disease floating around.

Although Applegate is just 36 years old, the fact remains that breast cancer is more likely to strike women over the age of 50.

Still, many women under the age of 40 may now be tempted to run out and demand mammograms.

But mammograms are ineffective for most young women, Dr. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, told FOXNews.com in October.

“Young women’s breasts are dense and if they get mammograms, their breasts show up very white on mammograms and cancer shows up as white,” she said. “But, as women get older, their breasts are less dense and show up gray on a mammogram, which makes it easy to identify the white cancer. If there is a family history, and women are worried, they can start earlier and in this case a digital mammography may work better than a traditional mammography.”

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WASHINGTON — Remember peeking through a View-Master? Scientists are using the same concept behind the classic kids’ toy to try to see mammograms in 3-D.

The goal: A better way to check for breast cancer in women with breasts too dense for today’s mammograms to give a clear picture.

Radiologists donning 3-D glasses isn’t the only potential aid. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., is testing a new kind of breast camera that might challenge the images of those far pricer MRI exams now reserved for the most high-risk women, but at a fraction of the price.

Both technologies still are experimental. But the research is being watched closely because the need is so great: Half of women younger than 50 and a third of women over 50 are estimated to have dense breasts.

In addition to a harder time viewing any brewing tumors, women with dense breasts have a higher risk of getting breast cancer, too.

Only a mammogram can tell if your breasts are made up more of dense or easier-to-examine fatty tissue. But if a doctor warns that you have dense breasts, there’s little good advice on how to get a better cancer check today.

“It’s a major issue in the field now, more and more, how to address the imaging needs of women with significant breast density,” says American Cancer Society screening specialist Robert Smith. “We and women and everyone else is kind of left wondering what would be best under what circumstances.”

But, “we can do better than we’re doing,” predicts Dr. Mary S. Newell, assistant breast-imaging chief at Emory University in Atlanta, who is testing the 3-D approach.

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There was a time when Breast Cancer was termed to be as a dreaded disease. But things have changed now. If detected earlier, this could be easily treated. Removal of your breast during the treatment of breast cancer can be one of the painful things you would have to go through. It may not be the same case for all patients. With the increasing knowledge about the cures and treatment breast cancer can be treated very easily.

Breast cancer occurs when cell in our breasts known as tumor grow out of control causing damage to the nearby tissues and spreads throughout. These tumors which are cancerous are known as malignant tumors and cause lot of damage to your body. As it takes lot of time for a tumor to grow, it may not be easy to detect the tumor during self exam. But these can be detected with mammograms.

Breast cancers best treatment - early detection. Once, cancer is detected it becomes easier for the doctors and yourself to fight it out. By the age of 20 all women should start doing Breast Self Examination (BSE) it is one of most easiest and earliest ways of detecting cancer. These check ups should be done few days after your periods. You should do this check up at least once a month. A clinical breast exam should be done at least once a year.

Some of the signs to look for, while doing BSE

• A lump found in and around the nipple or underarm
• Change in size or shape
• Nipple discharge or nipple turning inward
• Redness of skin or warmth
• Formation of dimple or change in skin texture

Some of the causes of having breast cancer

Gender: Being a woman is one of the common reasons for suffering from breast cancer. Event though men suffer from this disease too, just being a woman puts you in lot of danger.

Age: As you grow older your chances of having breast cancer increases.

Family history: If somebody in the family has suffered from breast cancer your chances of having breast cancer increases.

Being overweight or obese: If you are an overweight women your chances of breast cancer increases after menopause.

Lack of exercise: Being lethargic and lack of any physical activity leads you towards increasing weight and chances of breast cancer.

Alcohol: Drinking alcohol becomes very risky as it increases your chances of breast cancer.

Methods to Prevent Breast Cancer

• Turn into a vegetarian
• Have plenty of organic food and vegetables
• Avoid red meat and any processed foods
• Avoid alcohol and colas
• You can have something sweet by having Stevia, an herb which is a substitute to any other toxic artificial sweetener
• Having whole grains is very good such as Oatmeal, Kamut and Psyllium, which are a good source of fiber and enters directly into your bloodstream
• Your diet must include wheat, bran and Cabbage as they are very nutritious food which helps to prevent breast cancer
• Garlic, Ginger, carrots, celery, cilantro, parsley and parsnip has some of the highest cancer fighting nutrients. Include them in your daily diet

Article Source: Health Guidance

Elderly patients with breast cancer who received care in a community hospital setting may have been under-diagnosed, under-staged and under-treated, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The number of older breast cancer patients has increased along with overall elderly population, according to background information in the article. About half of breast cancer patients are older than 65 years and 35 percent are older than 70; 77 percent of breast cancer deaths occur in women older than 55. Choosing the appropriate treatment for older patients is a challenge, because many have other serious illnesses in addition to their cancer that may threaten their health and shorten their lives. Questions remain about the best screening protocols for elderly women, as well. Some current guidelines suggest that women stop having mammograms at age 70, while others provide no upper limit.

David A. Litvak, M.D., then of Michigan State University, Lansing, and now at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Orange County, Calif., and Rajeev Arora, M.D., used a tumor registry database to identify 354 women age 70 or older who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2002 at a community hospital. The researchers studied the group of women as a whole and also divided them into three age groups for analysis: ages 70 to 74 (136 patients), 75 to 79 (115 patients) and 80 or older (103 patients).

Overall, 46 percent of the patients came to their physician with breast cancer that could be felt during a physical examination. Although 72 percent of all the women and 60 percent of those age 80 and older had mammograms, they were mainly used to verify the results of the physical exam–mammograms uncovered previously undetected breast cancer in only 54 percent of the patients, including 38 percent of those 80 years or older. More than 70 percent of patients were in the early stages of cancer, stages I and II, at diagnosis, but evaluation of the lymph nodes to thoroughly assess the cancer’s progression was omitted in 36 percent of the cases (56 percent of those in women 80 or older).

About half of the women received breast-conserving surgery; however, rates of chemotherapy, radiation and hormonal therapy were lower than would be expected and were lowest among the oldest women. For example, 12 percent of all patients, 19 percent of those age 70 to 74 and 5 percent of those older than 80 underwent chemotherapy. “We also noted omissions of treatment in patients with indications for adjuvant [combination] treatment,” including those whose cancer had spread to the their lymph nodes or who had estrogen receptor-positive tumors, the authors write. “All together, 70 patients (20 percent) had positive lymph nodes. Of these patients, 29 percent received chemotherapy. Moreover, only 17 percent of patients age 80 years or older received chemotherapy in the presence of lymph node disease, significantly less than the 70- to 74-year age group.”

Although the results of this study do not confirm that these diagnosis and treatment patterns in older women lead to worse health, other evidence suggests this is the case, they continue. “Contrary to many physicians’ beliefs, the data suggest that fit older patients derive the same benefits from treatment as do their younger counterparts,” the authors conclude. “The cornerstone of treatment of older breast cancer patients is an adequate geriatric assessment that helps estimate life expectancy and predict tolerance of treatment. Treatment strategies then ought to be individualized based on this assessment.” Screening guidelines should also be customized to the patient; those who expect to live more than five additional years should continue having mammograms, they write.

Breast screening may produce false positives

Concerns have been raised that breast cancer screening might lead to some women undergoing unnecessary treatment.

Researchers looked at international studies on half a million women.

They found that for every 2,000 women screened over a decade, one will have her life prolonged, but 10 will have to undergo unnecessary treatment.

UK experts said women over 50 should go for their breast checks, but a screening pioneer raised doubts about the NHS programme’s future.

The report, published in the Cochrane Library, involved a review of breast cancer research papers from around the world.

Women invited to screening should be fully informed of both benefits and harm Dr Peter Gotzsche, researcher

The scientists found mammograms did reduce the number of women dying from the disease.

But they also discovered it was diagnosing woman with breast cancer who would have survived without treatment, meaning they were undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy, radiotherapy or mastectomies.

About a fifth of cancers picked up by screening are in the milk ducts of the breast.

Some of these cancers will progress while others will not - but there is no way of predicting what will happen.

This means women and doctors have to decide whether or not to risk doing nothing, or go ahead with treatment which might be unnecessary.

They also revealed a further 200 women out of every 2,000 experienced distress and anxiety because of false positives - a result that indicated a cancer was present but was later found to be wrong.

Lead researcher Dr Peter Gotzsche, of the Nordic Cochrane Centre, said: “Women invited to screening should be fully informed of both benefits and harm.

“When screening advocates and their organisations produce information materials, they generally emphasise the benefits and omit information on the major harms.

“This needs to be corrected to ensure that women can give genuinely informed consent before joining a screening programme.”

In 2001, the same authors concluded there was no convincing evidence that screening programmes reduce mortality from the disease.

NICE referral?

Michael Baum, professor of surgery at University College London who set up one of England’s first screening programme in 1987, told the Daily Telegraph: “This latest evidence shifts the balance even further towards harm and away from benefits.

The benefits of breast screening far outweigh the risks Julietta Patnick, director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes

“If this report stands up, the NHS screening programme should be referred to the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence to decide whether it should be closed down.”

But a spokesman for the Department of Health said that, as mammography was an accepted, evidence-based technology, it would not be appropriate to refer the screening programme to NICE.”

And Professor John Toy, medical director of Cancer Research UK, said: “Researchers in the field all agree that breast screening saves lives although they differ in their views about the balance of the pros and cons.

“Benefits need to be balanced against any disadvantages, as is the case with all medical treatments.

“Certainly women invited for screening should be made aware of both potential benefits and downsides - such as possible initial mis-diagnosis.

“But overall we continue to encourage UK women to participate in the NHS Breast Screening Programme.”

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: “When early changes are picked up by screening it is not currently possible to predict whether or not they will progress and so treatment is usually offered to prevent breast cancer from developing.

“It’s important women are given clear information about their treatment options. Early detection saves lives. Women over 50 should not be discouraged from taking up their screening appointments.”

And Julietta Patnick director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes said: “The programme saves 1,400 lives every year. Women who are screened are also less likely to have a mastectomy than those who are not screened.

“For lives to be saved breast screening must detect cancers in the early stages. The benefits of breast screening far outweigh the risks and I would strongly encourage all women to make an informed choice to attend for screening when invited.”

Getting tested regularly improves your chances for early detection. The screening tests described below can help find cancer early:

• Breast self exam—Can aid in detection of early tumors, particularly those that develop between annual mammograms and clinical breast exams. Monthly self-exams help you become familiar with how your breasts normally look and feel. This can help you recognize changes, such as thickening, lumps, spontaneous nipple discharge, dimpling or puckering.

  Don’t be overly worried if you think you feel a lump. Breast tissue naturally has a lumpy texture, and this lumpiness is more noticeable in some people than in others. If you feel the lumpiness throughout your breast, it is probably just the normal breast tissue and not something to be concerned about. If you discover a new lump that feels different from the rest of your breast—one that is firmer or different from what you have felt before—you should have it checked by your doctor.

• Clinical breast exam—Physical examinations done by physicians, nurse practitioners and other trained medical staff, who check the appearance and feel of the breasts and underarm for changes. The American Cancer Society recommends that women in their 20s and 30s should have a clinical breast exam as part of a routine health exam at least once every three years. Women over the age of 40 should have a yearly clinical breast exam.
• Mammogram—Uses x-rays to create an image of the breast, and may detect tumors that can’t be felt. A mammogram is generally considered to be the best screening method available. It can detect a tumor in an early stage, when it can be most effectively treated. Yearly mammograms are recommended for women 40 years and older.
• Ultrasound—Uses high-frequency sound waves to produce images on a viewing screen. Ultrasound is the best way to find out if an abnormality discovered through physical exam or mammography is solid (a benign fibroadenoma) or fluid-filled (a benign cyst). An ultrasound does not indicate whether a solid lump is cancerous.

What are the signs of breast cancer?

Unfortunately, the early stages of breast cancer may not have any symptoms. This is why it is important to follow screening recommendations. As a tumor grows in size, it can produce a variety of symptoms including:

• lump or thickening in the breast or underarm
• change in size or shape of the breast
• nipple discharge or nipple turning inward
• redness or scaling of the skin or nipple
• ridges or pitting of the breast skin

If you experience these symptoms, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have breast cancer, but you need to be examined by a doctor.

How is breast cancer diagnosed and staged?

Once a patient has symptoms suggestive of a breast cancer or an abnormal screening mammogram, they will usually be referred for a diagnostic mammogram. A diagnostic mammogram is another set of x-rays; however, it is more complete with close ups on the suspicious areas. Sometimes, particularly if your doctors think that you may have a cyst or you are young and have dense breasts, you may be referred for an ultrasound. An ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to outline the suspicious areas of the breast. It is painless and can often distinguish between benign and malignant lesions.

Depending on the results of the mammograms and/or ultrasounds, your doctors may recommend that you get a biopsy. A biopsy is the only way to know for sure if you have cancer, because it allows your doctors to get cells that can be examined under a microscope. There are different types of biopsies; they differ on how much tissue is removed. Some biopsies use a very fine needle, while others use thicker needles or even require a small surgical procedure to remove more tissue. Your team of doctors will decide which type of biopsy you need depending on your particular breast mass.

Once the tissue is removed, a doctor known as a pathologist will review the specimen. The pathologist can tell if it is cancer or not; and if it is cancerous, then the pathologist will characterize it by what type of tissue it arose from, how abnormal it looks (known as the grade), whether or not it is invading surrounding tissues, and if the entire lump was excised, the pathologist can tell if there are any cancer cells left at the borders (also known as the margins). The pathologist will also test the cancer cells for the presence of estrogen and progesterone receptors as well as a receptor known as

HER-2/neu. The presence of estrogen and progesterone receptors is important because cancers that have those receptors can be treated with hormonal therapies. HER-2/neu expression may also help predict outcome. There are also some therapies directed specifically at tumors dependent on the presence of HER-2/nue.

In order to guide treatment and offer some insight into prognosis, breast cancer is staged into five different groups. This staging is done in a limited fashion before surgery taking into account the size of the tumor on mammogram and any evidence of spread to other organs that is picked up with other imaging modalities; and it is done definitively after a surgical procedure that removes lymph nodes and allows a pathologist to examine them for signs of cancer. The staging system is somewhat complex, but here is a simplified version of it:

Stage 0 (called carcinoma in situ)

Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) refers to abnormal cells lining a gland in the breast. This is a risk factor for the future development of cancer, but this is not felt to represent a cancer itself.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) refers to abnormal cells lining a duct. Women with DCIS have an increased risk of getting invasive breast cancer in that breast. Treatment options are similar to patients with Stage I breast cancers.

Stage I: early stage breast cancer where the tumor is less that 2 cm across and hasn’t spread beyond the breast

Stage II : early stage breast cancer where the tumor is either less than 2 cm across and has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm; or the tumor is between 2 and 5 cm (with or without spread to the lymph nodes under the arm); or the tumor is greater than 5 cm and hasn’t spread outside the breast

Stage III: locally advanced breast cancer where the tumor is greater than 5 cm across and has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm; or the cancer is extensive in the underarm lymph nodes; or the cancer has spread to lymph nodes near the breastbone or to other tissues near the breast

Stage IV: metastatic breast cancer where the cancer has spread outside the breast to other organs in the body

Depending on the stage of your cancer, your doctor may want additional tests to see if you have metastatic disease. If you have a stage III cancer, you will probably get a chest x-ray, CT scan and bone scan to look for metastases. Each patient is an individual and your doctors will decide what is necessary to adequately stage your cancer.

What screening tests are available?

The earlier that a breast cancer is found, the more likely it is that treatment can be curable. For this reason, we screen for breast cancer using mammograms, clinical breast exams, and breast self-exams. Screening mammograms are simply x-rays of each breast. The breast is placed between two plates for a few seconds while the x-rays are taken. If something appears abnormal, or better views are needed, magnified views or specially angled films are taken during the mammogram. Mammograms often detect tumors before they can be felt and they can also identify tiny specks of calcium that could be an early sign of cancer. Regular screening mammograms can decrease the mortality of breast cancer by 30%. The majority of breast cancers are associated with abnormal mammographic findings. Woman should get a yearly mammogram starting at age 40 (although some groups recommend starting at 50), and women with a genetic mutation that increases their risk or a strong family history may want to begin even earlier.

Between the ages of 20 and 39, every woman should have a clinical breast exam every 3 years; and after age 40 every woman should have a clinical breast exam done each year. A clinical breast exam is an exam done by a health professional to feel for lumps and look for changes in the size or shape of your breasts. During the clinical breast exam, you can learn how to do a breast self-exam. Every woman should do a self breast exam once a month, about a week after her period ends. If you find any changes in your breasts, you need to contact your doctor. About 15% of tumors are felt but cannot be seen by regular mammographic screening.

There are some experimental screening modalities that are currently being studied. These include MRI, ductal lavage, ultrasound, optical tomography, PET scan, and digital mammograms. For more information on these experimental techniques

What is the breast?

The breast is a collection of glands and fatty tissue that lies between the skin and the chest wall. The glands inside the breast produce milk after a woman has a baby. Each gland is also called a lobule, and many lobules make up a lobe. There are 15 to 20 lobes in each breast. The milk gets to the nipple from the glands by way of tubes called ducts. The glands and ducts get bigger when a breast is filled with milk, but the tissue that is most responsible for the size and shape the breast is the fatty tissue. There are also blood vessels and lymph vessels in the breast. Lymph is a clear liquid waste product that gets drained out of the breast into lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small, pea-sized pieces of tissue that filter and clean the lymph. Most lymph nodes that drain the breast are under the arm in what is called the axilla.

What is breast cancer?

Breast cancer happens when cells in the breast begin to grow out of control and can then invade nearby tissues or spread throughout the body. Large collections of this out of control tissue are called tumors. However, some tumors are not really cancer because they cannot spread or threaten someone’s life. These are called benign tumors. The tumors that can spread throughout the body or invade nearby tissues are considered cancer and are called malignant tumors. Theoretically, any of the types of tissue in the breast can form a cancer, but usually it comes from either the ducts or the glands. Because it may take months to years for a tumor to get large enough to feel in the breast, we screen for tumors with mammograms, which can sometimes see disease before we can feel it.

Breast cancer occurs when cells in the breast begin to grow out of control enabling them to invade nearby tissues or spread throughout the body. Collections of these out of control tissues are called tumors. However, not all breast tumors are considered cancerous since certain types of large cells just cannot be spread or threaten a person’s life and this kind of tumor is called benign tumor. On the other hand, the tumors that can spread all throughout the body or invade nearby tissues are considered cancerous cells and are malignant. Cancer cells usually comes from either ducts or glands in the breast that is why it may take months or even years for a tumor to be notice in the breast. Breast tumors are screened with the use of mammograms that are rather accurate in screening tumor or cancer cells.Women are much prone to develop breast cancer that men. Only 1% to 2% of men have been known to have cases of breast cancer. The early onset of menstruation in women at the age of 12 increases the risk for a breast cancer on the other hand an early menopausal period may reduce the risk of breast cancer. The risk for women to have breast cancer increases with age in fact a study shows that women over 50 are more likely to develop breast cancer. Nevertheless, the incidence of breast cancer among younger women is also increasing in an alarming rate that is why more women of ages 20s to 30s have subjected themselves to be diagnosed.Breast cancer is not only acquired but also can be inherited. For women who have genetic mutation such as BRCA1 or BRCA2 has an 80% risk of developing breast cancer. Women who have first-degree relative diagnosed to have breast cancer increase their risk of also acquiring breast cancer. Moreover, women with first-degree relative that are diagnosed to have breast cancer before menopause increase the risk for them in acquiring breast cancer.Some factors contribute to the occurrence of breast cancer and these are as follows: smoking, alcohol and radiation exposure. Women who are smoking will increase their chances to have breast cancer. Aside from that, high intakes of alcohol have been found to be a source of breast cancer. Radiation exposure is another factor that contributes to breast cancer. Studies have shown that women as well as children who have undergone high-dose radiation therapy have a much higher chance of having breast cancer.