The Two Cancers of the Century Breast and Prostate Cancer

The Two Cancers of the Century

Breast and Prostate Cancer

11/11/2012

BIOLOGY 101

Cirene Nowicki

Cancer: one of the leading causes of death among women and men. Cancer knows no age and no specific occupation. It does not care where you grow up, your race, or what kind of person you are. Cancer has no limits. More than one-million people are affected by cancer every year. During my discussion, I will go through the many avenues of cancer and discuss why research is important in our community today. I will cover the two leading cancers in women, and men; breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Over the course of a lifetime, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. With age, comes a higher risk of contracting breast cancer. The most advanced breast cancer is found in women over the age of 50. Women are 100 times more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than men. There are two forms of breast cancer; one which is seen more often and is more common is ductal carcinoma, which develops in the ducts that moves milk to nipple in the breast. The second form is lobular carcinoma it starts in the breast, the lobules, where milk is produced.

“Each year, breast cancer is diagnosed in 1.3 million women worldwide and 465,000 deaths result from the disease. It occurs very infrequently in men (300/year in UK). Incidence increases with age, 80% occurring in women over the age of 50 years. It occurs less commonly in younger women, but they tend to display more aggressive disease (5-year survival rates 81% <45 years, 86% >65 years).” (Br J Cancer, 91 (2004), pp. 77–83)

Breast cancer is caused by malignant cells in the tissue. Cancer is described as regrowth of cells with uncontrolled division. With cancer cells, they multiply and divide, growing until all tissue has been consumed. There are many ways to test for breast cancer; a mammogram is one of the most often used in women over the age of 40. Required by most physicians, a mammogram is ordered for a...