cancer listings

breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy informational items

breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy

Searching for other resources on breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy or about breast self examination video clips? Breast carcinoma is a awful disease, and this is why we are providing extra resources for breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy, non cancer fatty breast tumors, and further associated facts for your pleasure. Read a little further and you will not only find some wondrous references on breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy, but involving many additional items too.

Locating a breast lump or mass, a signaling of breast tissue Tumor, is likely 1 of a woman's largest dreads. Luckily, 80% of all breast lumps are benign masses, or in other words, non-cancerous. However, if a woman should find a persistent lump or mass in her breast or any seemingly-abnormal alterations in her breast tissue, it is extremely important that she be seen by a doctor immediately. If the mass is malignant the prognosis is much improved if it is discovered early. This is why monthly self-exams for cancer, habitual visits to the doctor and regularly scheduled mammograms may be helpful.

Finding information concerning breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy is evidently vital to you. That's the reason we are giving the following information with regard to breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy and too pertaining to cancer of the breast, because breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy and breast carcinoma are 2 related areas of interest and need to be thought about in concert.

Carcinoma of the breast tissue is the most widely seen malignant problem amongst females and also has the most high fatality rate of all carcinomas affecting women. At some period during her life, 1 in every 8 women in the United States shall acquire cancer of the breast tissue. This has increased from about 1 in fifteen in nineteen-seventy-seven. In the United States of America the risk of developing breast carcinoma is 12.64% by age 95, as well as the probability of dying from the cancerous disease is about 3.6% (approximately forty thousand each year). A lot of of this probability is found in women past the age of 75.

Breast cancer risk factors in the sequential order of importance

1) Mother had bilateral breast cancer diagnosed prior to menopause.
2) A close relative of the woman had breast cancer during her menopausal time.
3) Is over fifty and experienced pregnancy for the first time after age 30.
4) Has a history of chronic breast disease.
5) The woman was exposed to radiation (x-rays, etc.) greater than 50 rad during her adolescence.
6) Is very obese.
7) Had an early initial menstrual period.
8) Did not experience menopause until later in her life.
9) Has irregular menstrual cycles.

It should be noted that artificially started menopause prior to age thirty-five and giving birth before age eighteen could offer some protection from breast carcinoma.

Since you are trying to find info about breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy you will in all probability be excited about supplementary references with respect to the risks of breast cancer. The chance of breast tissue cancer is increased if there is a family history of the cancerous disease. If a woman's parent or sister has breast cancer it increases to double or triple a woman's risk of getting the illness. If a more distant relation than a mother or sibling has gotten the disease it increases the probability just a little. In some breast cancer trials it was shown that the chance was greater in women with relatives that had breast carcinoma bilaterally or whose cancer was first diagnosed by a doctor earlier in life (before time of menopause). When two or more of a woman's mother, father, or siblings have breast cancer the risk may be up to 5 or even 6 times higher.

Since you have conveyed a desire to know more informational items in regard to breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy we were thinking you might find the following facts helpful as well. Women who use oral birth control devices have a very tiny increase in the chance of acquiring breast tissue carcinoma (about a 0.00005% increase - ie., 5 additional cases per 100,000 women). The increased probability most often takes place in the period of time the women are actually consuming the oral contraceptives. The increase in risk diminishes during the 10-year period after the females stop taking the contraceptive devices. Also, females who start relying on oral contraceptive devices earlier than the age of 20 have the greatest increase in the chance of producing carcinoma of the breast tissue. Even so, this increased risk is still super low.

Symptoms and Signs of Breast Cancer

Besides information concerning breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy you might also find this information super interesting. Somewhere in the neighborhood 80 percent and 90 percent of all breast tissue cancers are first found by breast tissue self-examination, or accidently by the person, as a lump in the breast. In the other ten percent to 20 percent of breast tissue cancer patients the females will show 1 or more of the ensuing symptoms: a history of breast pain without any noticeable lumps, breast expansion, or a thickening in the breast tissue itself.

If you are looking for references on breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy you may also want to know with reference to breast tissue cancer signs and symptoms during a normal physical exam. Generally during physical examination of a breast cancer patient a mass or lump distinctly unlike from the encircling breast will be noted. In benign masses there can be some diffuse (spread out) fibrotic alterations found in one quadrant (a quarter of the breast tissue). In benign tumors this would usually be in the upper and outer quadrant. If there is a reasonably firmer thickening of only one breast (not both breasts) it might be a sign of malignancy.

More advanced breast cancerous tumors are characterized by one or more of the following: fixing of the lump to the thorax, fixation of the lump or mass to overlying skin on the breast, by the bearing of nodules or ulcers in the breast skin, or by an increase of the usual skin markings resulting from puffiness due to an impediment of the lymphatic system (lymphedema). If lymph nodes are fixed or pathologic in either the field of the underarm/armpit (axillary region) or higher than or under the collar bone (supraclavicular or infraclavicular regions), surgical operations are not probably going to remedy the cancer symptoms. Particularly virulent (powerful and infectious) is inflammatory breast cancer. Inflammatory breast cancer usually causes redness and inflammation in a wide area of the breast that likewise causes an enlargement of the breast. Oftentimes there is no detectable mass.

Treatment of Breast Cancer

Since you are interested in breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy you could find this relevant too. To a large degree, the treatment of choice depends entirely on the age of the patient as well as the progression of the disease. Palliative treatment (easing the discomfort without curing the cancerous disease) is all that can be hoped for while there is proof of substantial involvement of axillary (underarm - axillary cavity or armpit), supraclavicular (above the collar bone), or internal mammary lymph nodes or of more extended metastatic spread. Metastatic spread usually refers to a spread of the cancerous disease by the lymphatics or the arterial system. When there is no evidence of this spread (or, at the most, signs & symptoms of small involvement of the underarm lymph nodules on the affected side), the normal treatment of choice is complete removing of the cancerous breast, or mastectomy, the musculus pectoralis that are underneath the breast, and the contents of the axillary fossa on the involved breast side.

Modified radical mastectomy is becoming increasingly acceptable as an different choice to the historically accepted radical mastectomy for the treatment of all primary operable breast cancerous diseases. The modified radical mastectomy takes out all of the breast tissue as in the radical mastectomy, but it does not remove the greater pectoral muscle. This eradicates the neccessity for a skin graft. Survival time is the same whether a modified radical mastectomy or a radical mastectomy was executed. The difference is that with the modified radical mastectomy breast reconstruction is substantially easier since the greater musculus pectoralis is still in place.

Treatment of Metastatic Disease

Breast carcinoma may metastasize (disperse by the lymphatics or bloodstream) to about any organ in the entire body. However, the most seen regions of metastasis are the lungs, liver, bone cells, lymph nodules, skin (mostly in the region of the breast surgical processes), nervous system, and scalp. And since the metastasis typically occurs lots of years after the treatment of breast tumor, any symptoms should cause one to look for further examination.

If you are interested in learning more regarding breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy or breast cancer at large you might go to the National Cancer Institute's Publications Locator page concerning cancer publications.

American Cancer Society Information

Clinical Trials Information: Find a Clinical Trial

Email Information: Contact the American Cancer Society

National Cancer Institute Contact Information

Phone: 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237), 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. local time
TTY: 1-800-332-8615
Email: cancergovstaff@mail.nih.gov  

National Cancer Institute Web Site: http://www.cancer.gov/

My Breast Cancer ::: Resources ::: Partners ::: Contact ::: Site Map ::: Privacy

Important: my-breast-cancer.com is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. Any medical decisions should be made in consultation with your physician. We will not be held liable for any complications, injuries or other medical accidents arising from, or in connection with, the use of, or reliance upon any information on the web concerning any medical or health-related problems.