Symptoms and treatment of breast cancer

* Cancer symptoms arise through the unrestrained growth of cells in organs or tissue.

* As a cancer grows, it spreads and inflitrates the tissues around it and may block passageways, destroy nerves and erode bone.

* Tumours: a breast lump may be a cyst (a fluid-filled sac), a fibroadenoma (a thickening of the milk-producing tissue) or other benign tumour, or, more rarely, breast cancer.

* It is common for women to notice that before menstruation their breasts become bigger and lumpier. Such lumps shrink when menstruation is over. More common are breast pain and tenderness. A breast-cancer lump is usually felt rather than seen, and can be difficult to detect because many women have lumpy breasts.

* Symptoms might include a discharge from the nipple, retraction (indentation) of the nipple, and an area of dimpled, creased skin over the lump.

* More than 600 women die each year of breast cancer, more than the road toll. Five per cent of all deaths in women in New Zealand each years are through breast cancer.

* More than 1900 women are diagnosed each year. Breast surgeon Dr John Harman says breast cancer will double in the next decade and kill around 1200 women a year by 2010.

* Almost 10 per cent of women in this country will develop breast cancer. Clinicians believe this figure could increase from one in 10 to one in eight.

* Breast cancer usually occurs in women over the age of 40. About 75 per cent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and 80 per cent of the women who die from it are 50 years old or over.

* Risk factors, some of which are highly debatable, are said to include: others in the family having breast cancer, poor diet and little exercise, long-term use of Hormone Replacement Therapy, and taking the Pill. Breastfeeding for a long period appears to give a little extra protection against breast cancers.

* Treatments include lumpectomy (removal of tumour), combined with radiotherapy or anti-cancer drugs, or radical mastectomy (removal of the whole breast). But often only part of the breast is removed.

Further reading
nzherald.co.nz/health