The information on this page will help you understand more about your Breast Cancer, and your treatment options. Once you have had a mammogram and have been tested positive for breast cancer, there are many other tests you should have done. Once you have been informed of the stage of your breast cancer, it is always a good idea to get second opinion. The types of breast cancer are named depending where the cancer has grown inside of the breast. The most popular breast cancers are the ones that develop from the cells that line the milk-producing lobules, which is called “lobular cancer”, or cells that line the milk ducks, which is called “ductal cancer”; These are the most common breast cancers found by doctors. In cases of diagnosed breast cancer today, there are about one out of every five cases that fall into the catagory known as non-invasive, or called “in situ” ( DSIS ). These non-invasive or “in situ” breast cancers are either lobular carcinoma in situ ( LCIS ) – or ductal carcinoma in situ ( DCIS ). There are also other types of breast cancer that are less common, such as one named “Paget’s disease“, which is usually mistaken as a common rash. Paget’s disease starts by scaling on the nipple, which is why it is confused as a rash most of the time, but the rash or scaling is the first sign of the canerous growth. Another rare cancer of the breast is known as “Inflammatory cancer” that grows quite fast and symtoms are usually swelling and redness of the breast.

Once Inflammatory cancer is found and diagnosed, it is important to make decisions about treatment as soon as you can because of how fast this rare cancer grows and spreads. When you have a malignant tumor, like my mother did, cancer cells can spread to the lung, liver, bone, and other organs inside your body. As a maligant tumor grows in size, it is possible that it may spread locally inside your body and begin to destroy tissue and cells from the tumor. These cancer cells end up breaking off from the tumor, and then make their way into other parts of your body through blood vessels or the lymphatic vessels. Some of the time when these cells break off from the tumor, they can get caught inside the lymph nodes inside the armpit area, or in other technical words- the “axilla”. You are able to have an examination called “axillary lymph nodes dissection“, which can determine the cancers stage and the degree of spread, if it has spread to any distant parts of the body. When the cancer has spread to another part of the body, or have escaped into the circulatory system first hand, they then can start to spread to the bones, lungs, liver, brain. When this happens new tumors are formed, called ” metatases “. These are the most worrisome distant metatases because of the damage they can preform on the vital organs, which is why this is an advanced stage of breast cancer, and is known as ” metastatic cancer. This cancer is harder to manage and can be much more diffcult, but is less common. Systemic therapy is often very necessary to use because this therapy reaches all parts of the body, by the blood stream, to make sure no cancer cells remain anywhere else in the body. I will explain more about this later. First you will need to understand the stages of breast cancer, which are located below, on this page. There are also many tests that you will need to have done to determine the stage of the cancer, as well as other tests that will be explained later, as well as a list of doctors that you will most likely have as part of your treatment team. Good luck to you, and remember to stay positive through this, for the outcome will be much brighter. Never give up, and never loose hope or faith. You are not fighting this alone.



TIP- A good idea I found to be helpful is to always bring a notebook and pen when visiting doctors, and to write down any and all  questions you might want to ask your doctor, so you can be prepared and ready to ask questions and write down any helpful information or resources while at your appointment ( Or even on the phone ). Investing in a cheap notebook or planner is a smart idea when dealing with breast cancer and learning more about your specific case. Remember to write down all of your doctors and their phone numbers, as well as important information like the addresses, names, appointments, surgery dates and even write in any friends who will be able to help you when you need help or a ride to or from an appointment.  Any resources that may be able to help you are better than having none at all, and getting opinions from more than one person is wise, and can help you in making decisions related to your breast cancer case. It’s always better to be organized and prepared than to be unorganized and unprepared. I know I always feel better when things are in order and I know when my next appointment is. We all have those days when we misplace an appointment card or phone number for example…only to end up tearing the house apart to find what we are looking for…usually I end up finding what I am looking for in the most simple place, then the stress comes on because of the huge mess I have made that now needs to be cleaned up again, and for wasting time and saying again like I have before…” I should have wrote that down and put it on the fridge or in my planner!”. We need to eliminate stress in our lives as much as we can, especially now, so make sure to write things down and put them somewhere you always look each day-  Maybe buy a folder to keep all of your important information in.  If you do this, I promise you will worry less, feel better, and be organized for the road to recovery you have ahead.
I bought my mother a nice notebook, as well as a planner to bring with her to her appointments, so that she could write notes and references while she was there. I ended up getting her this and reminding her to take down notes and anything else that would be helpful, after she accidentally drove to a wrong doctors office the day of a very important test she was scheduled to have done! Ever since that day, she thanked me, and is much more organized.

 Stages of Breast Cancer…

Stage 0- Stage 0 is considered a Non-Invasive breast cancer (DCIS, LCIS), meaning that none of the cancer cells have gone inside of the duck or lobule lining. 

Stage 1- Stage 1 is considered an Invasive Tumor, usually 2cm and 3/4 or smaller, where there is no evidence of any far away Metastases, which all Axillary Lymph Nodes are tested negative.

Stage 2- Stage 2 is when the Tumor size is in the range of 2-5 cm, and testing of the Axillary Lymph Nodes can have a negative or positive outcome for cancer, even in cases where the tumor size is less than 2cm and the Lymph Nodes have tested positive; Stage two is also considered cancer.

Stage 3- Stage 3 is when the tumor that is found is the size of 5cm and the Lymph Nodes has an extensive spread, sometimes the Tumor will spread into the skin of your breast, or into your Pectoral Muscles, without sometimes any distant measures.

Stage 4- Stage 4 is when the Tumor detected has already been spreading to organs, which most of the time are your liver, brain, lungs, and bone. No matter what the size is of the Tumor or how many positive Axillary Lymph Nodes, if it has spread to any of your organs- it is considered Stage 4.

Progression and Staging of Breast Cancer Video.

Below is a informative link to a great book on a Healthy Cancer Diet. I recommend you read this book for your health and recovery
Click Here!