Breast Cancer...

      WHAT IS BREAST CANCER?

        Malignant tumor in the glandular tissues of the breast. Such tumors, also called carcinomas, form when the processes that control normal cell growth break down, enabling a single abnormal cell to multiply at a rapid rate.

        Carcinomas, which tend to destroy an increasing proportion of normal breast tissue over time, may spread, or metastasize, to other parts of the body.

        Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, other than skin cancer. A major health problem in many parts of the world, it is especially prevalent in developed countries. As a result of large-scale screening of women considered at higher risk, a greater number of breast cancers have been discovered and treated in recent years, even in cases where the women experienced no symptoms. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that in the United States about 203,500 new cases are diagnosed and about 40,000 women die each year from cancer originating in the breast. One in 8 American women who live to age 85 will develop this illness at some time during her life. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, 19,000 new cases are diagnosed in Canada each year, and 5,300 Canadian women die from the disease annually. The rate of incidence increases with age, and women 75 years and older are at highest risk. Breast cancer can affect males, but the disease strikes women about 100 times as often as it does men.