Metastatic Breast Cancer, a Slow Killer of Women - Essay Example

Metastatic Breast Cancer Introduction Technically speaking, cancer is a disease in which somecells of the body show unusual rate of growth, affect, invade, and destroy the adjoining tissues and they sometime spread to other areas of the body through blood. The branch of oncology in medicine deals with cancers. Cancer can possibly come from inheritance; however, its stimulation depends upon by human actions like drinking or smoking for example. People from all backgrounds, lifestyles, and age groups are potentially at risk for cancers. Moreover, cancers caused more than 7.6 million recorded deaths all over the world in the year 2007. There are many types of cancers. “Lung cancer, bone cancer, anal cancer, bladder cancer, brain tumor, throat cancer, blood cancer, tongue cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, skin cancer, small intestine cancer, blood cancer” (Yarbro, pp. 11-15), and others are just few of them. This paper would move forward with the defining breast cancer. Breast cancer occurs when the cells that fulfill the definition mentioned above are a part of the tissues in breast. It mostly occurs in the milk ducts or the tissue that supply milk to the breasts. This is one of the reasons of its occurrence in men more than hundred times as compared to women. According to the global statistics, it is the fifth most common type of cancer causing deaths. The most symptoms of breast cancer in women are “lump or swelling, skin dimpling, unusual increase in the size of breast, sudden discharge of milk or blood from the nipple, change in color and sudden pulling out of the nipple” (Yarbro, pp. 22-25). There are different stages and types of breast cancer and the rest of the paper focuses on one of its types. Discussion Metastatic breast cancer is the fourth and the last stage of breast cancer (Miller, pp. 5-12). The term Metastatic refers to the phenomenon in which the tumor breast cells move away from the boundaries of breast to other adjoining or sometimes distant parts of the body. Usually, these cells prefer bones, liver and lungs as their second home (Singletary, Robb & Hortobagyi, pp. 26-28). More importantly, these cells continue to grow and multiply at those secondary places as well. According to the official statistics of the United States, more than 155,000 women are living with this disease. Moreover, experts believe that this number would increase 10 percent in the year 2011. Approximately, 10-30 percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer end up with metastatic breast cancer. Moreover, it is sometimes diagnosed in women when the have been treated for any previous form of cancer since this is the last stage. Therefore, women who had previous treatment for cancer whether successful or unsuccessful are always at risk for metastatic breast cancer. Women in the ages to 45 to 55 are most likely to catch metastatic breast cancer (Mayer, pp. 101-109). The cure for this disease depends upon the extent to which these cells have spread. If the tumor cells have only passed until the lymph or the underarm portion of the body then there is still a fair chance that the patient would survive. The conditions are early detection, proper surgery, and treatment. However, the second type of the breast cancer occurs when these cells cross these borders. Unfortunately, there is no cure for this deadly disease (Miller, pp. 5-12). Whatever treatment is undertaken focuses primarily on minimizing and slowing down the effects, improving the quality of remaining life and extending the number of days that the patient has remaining with him or her (Mayer, pp. 101-109). Treatment mostly uses approaches like hormonal therapy and chemotherapy, which have the ability to treat the whole part of the body rather than surgeries in which you only focus on one specific part of the body (Mayer, pp. 38-41). This is the because of the fact that it becomes very difficult to tell that to which specific the cells have traveled. Moreover, these infected cells take all the time that they want to grow, develop, and show the effects (Mansel, Fodstad, & Jiang, pp. 14-19). The symptoms of metastatic breast cancer mainly have links with the specific parts of the body where it has developed over time. For example, lack of appetite and weight loss may indicate that the cancer has reached to liver or stomach. In addition, headaches and weakness may mean that the tumor cells have successfully reached to brain and neurological areas, pain in bones may mean bone metastases, and breathing problems may indicate that these cells are now in the lungs (Brown, Freeman & Platt, pp. 27-28). Recently, there has been quite some research finding the areas where breast cancer has the most tendencies to spread first. Results show that bones are at the largest risk and almost 25 percent of these cancers spread to bones initially (Link, Forsthoff & Waisman, pp. 69-73). The cancer would do two most common damages after reaching the bones. Firstly, it can slowly eat away the bones forming holes in it. This commonly happens with the bones of arms, legs, hip, and pelvis (DeAngelis & Posner, pp. 11-15). The alternative is that these cells would affect the bones in such a way that it would fracture easily. Moreover, “bone metastases can cause serious pain. Sixty to seventy percent of the women who had died from metastatic breast cancer had it spread in their lungs” (Mansel, Fodstad & Jiang, pp. 14-19). In addition, lungs were the only site of breast cancer cells in around 21 percent of the cases. As mentioned above, the common symptoms are breathing problems and dry cough. However, these symptoms do not show up all the time and chest X-ray or CT scan remain as good options (Brown, Freeman & Platt, pp. 27-28). In most of the cases, when the cancer reaches lung, it becomes reaches every part of the lung and it becomes impossible to treat it with surgery. Chemotherapy is the best option in this case. Liver is the third place at which the cancer is most likely to spread. Only test of liver blood conform the presence of cancer in liver. Since metastatic breast cancer has many different types and forms, they require different approaches of treatment. For most of these past years, surgery, hormonal therapy remains chemotherapy as the widely used methods for treatment (Shockney & Shapiro, pp. 52-58). However, recently, a new type of blood test has come on the scene called cell search CTC (DeAngelis & Posner, pp. 11-15). It can count the number of tumor cells in a blood sample. Less than five cells is a good sign but more than five cells means that the patient has less time left as compared to others. This test is very helpful for doctors in terms of evaluation and monitoring of their treatment approach (Ko, Dollinger & Rosenbaum, pp. 59-62). In a recent survey funded by the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO) found that “only 10 percent of the women live for 10 years or more with metastatic breast cancer, 25-35 percent are lucky enough to survive for five years for more and the majority of them fall in the 2-3 year sample” (Singletary, Robb & Hortobagyi, pp. 26-28). Moreover, a majority of the women in that sample admitted that people outside think that they are about to die and have little time left. It is also important here to discuss male breast cancer, which is rare, but it does exist. There is a misconception regarding breast cancer that it is a female disease and male cannot catch it (Mayer, pp. 38-41). However, for the past few years, quite a few cases of male breast cancers have come up on the scene to remind that males also have some breast tissues and they are at risk to breast cancer. Most of these cases have been with older men of ages more than 60 however; younger men are also at risk. Factors like obesity, family history, genetic issues, testicular abnormalities, and others (Ko, Dollinger & Rosenbaum, pp. 59-62). More importantly, men are at a larger risk of metastatic breast cancer than women are (Yarbro, pp. 23-29). This is because of the fact that men have less breast tissue than women do, which gives the infected tissues greater chance to jump to the adjoining organs and places very quickly. “The symptoms of breast cancer in men are almost the same as in women” (Shockney & Shapiro, pp. 52-58). The modes of treatment also depend upon the case and case history of the patient but “surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and hormone therapy” are the most common (Yarbro, pp. 23-29). Works Cited Brown, Zora K., Freeman, Harold, & Platt, Elizabeth. 100 questions & answers about breast cancer. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2006. DeAngelis, Lisa M., & Posner, Jerome B. Neurologic Complications of Cancer. Oxford University Press US, 2008. Ko, Andrew H., Dollinger, Malin, & Rosenbaum, Ernest H. Everyones Guide to Cancer Therapy: How Cancer Is Diagnosed, Treated, and Managed Day to Day. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008. Link, John, Forsthoff, Cynthia, & Waisman, James. The breast cancer survival manual: a step-by-step guide for the woman with newly diagnosed breast cancer. H. Holt, 2003. Mansel, Robert E., Fodstad, Oystein, & Jiang, Wen G. Metastasis of Breast Cancer. Springer, 2009. Mayer, Musa. Advanced breast cancer: a guide to living with metastatic disease. OReilly, 1998. Mayer, Musa. Holding tight, letting go: living with metastatic breast cancer. OReilly, 1997. Miller, Kenneth D. Choices in breast cancer treatment: medical specialists and cancer survivors tell you what you need to know. JHU Press, 2008. Shockney, Lillie. & Shapiro, Gary R. 100 Questions & Answers About Advanced and Metastatic Breast Cancer. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2008. Singletary, S. Eva., Robb, Geoffrey L., & Hortobagyi, Gabriel N. Advanced therapy of breast disease. PMPH-USA, 2004. Yarbro, Connie Henke, Frogge, Margaret Hansen., & Goodman, Michelle. Cancer nursing: principles and practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2005. Read More