Breast Cancer

Ohmer, Vargo, Follina, Connor, Wright

Professor Wilson

English 0990

22 November 2012

Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is a disease that currently affects millions of women in the U.S. Women today are being diagnosed even before they show any signs or symptoms. Despite billions of dollars that have been dedicated to breast cancer research, a cure still goes unknown. As a group we researched what exactly breast cancer is, what are the possible causes of breast cancer, what type of diagnosis there are, different types of treatment, and lastly what type of long term prevention is there? What is breast cancer? Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that starts in the cells of the breast. This is a disease that occurs mostly in women, but can occur in men too. The cancer cells grow in surrounding tissues and spread to distant areas. Most breast cancer cells line the ducts but the cells that line the lobules can spread to other tissues. There are several parts to understand how breast cancer can spread. Scientists are always making new discoveries about Breast cancer, but they are still unsure about what is the exact cause of breast cancer. Symptoms for breast cancer can vary and most of the time the signs are not painful. Most cancer can be felt through the skin. Breast cancer, when felt through the skin can feel like thickening or lump in the breast or other parts of the body. Signs can also be a lump not only on the breast but also near the underarm, along with a blood stained or clear fluid discharge from the nipple, redness on the skin or on the nipple, and a marble like hardened area of the skin. Five or six different proteins in the case of melanoma and one very unusual antigen are in breast cancer. Thirty percent of melanomas the gene becomes active in several commoner tumors including breast cancer and lung cancer. Breast cancer can reoccur or spread, they can spread to other parts of the body but sometimes they spread to the bone. Breast cancer can be hereditary,...