Breast cancer remains a serious condition, affecting one in twelve women sometime in their lifetime. But, fortunately, it is no longer typically life threatening or permanently scarring.
Breast cancer, like all other cancers, is extremely mysterious. Breast cancer is an active research area and many questions remain unanswered. The underlying causes of breast cancer remain unknown in most cases, but the way by which it spreads and acts is better known today.
The risks of breast cancer- who gets breast cancer, the negatives and positives of different treatments, the survivability rates and more are much better quantified.
While many claims are overblown, the effects of diet are becoming clearer. Many questions remain, but low estrogen producing diets and lifestyles are strongly indicated as beneficial. Low fat diets contribute to that as does regular exercise.
Early detection and diagnosis has made tremendous improvements over the years and now a clump of as few as 50 cells containing cancer can be identified. Chemical tests used for early detection are now becoming cheaper and much more sophisticated. The use of ultrasound technology is also becoming more common. Treatments now range from the more traditional such as the lumpectomy or mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation to more advanced hormone treatments.
Even with all the innovation, though, self-examination remains one of the best practices. It is in the individual’s control and makes possible ferreting out anything requiring further investigation by more advanced methods. Mammograms remain a low cost, low risk and low discomfort method of detecting tumors.
Recovery is typically faster with fewer recurrences being seen thanks to more precise diagnosis and treatment. Digital mammography is computer assisted and makes the review of test results much more accurate than in the past.
Where, tragically, a woman or man has contracted breast cancer and requires surgery, improved reconstructive techniques have lessened the harm. The FDA has recently taken silicon implants off the forbidden list. Implantation and plastic surgery in general have become less onerous. Patients are now often out of the hospital the same day as the surgery.
It is normal in today’s world for almost 100% of the individuals who receive early diagnosis and treatment (treatment during stage 0 or stage I) to live longer than five years. Most of these individuals never have any recurrence at all and aren’t bothered by their breast cancer for the rest of their life.
This disease was once life threatening and typically terminal. Though it hasn’t been reduced to nothing more than an annoyance yet it is still much less life threatening. Typically following treatment individuals can enjoy a cancer free life.