Breast Cancer: Symptoms, Stages, Types, and More

What Is Breast Cancer?

Breast cancer is a type of cancer that first starts in the breast and can start in both or one breast. Breast cancer occurs when mutation changes take place in genes that regulate cell growth. Breast cancer mainly occurs in women and rarely in men. It is also essential to understand the exact symptoms and treatments of cancer in the beginning just to avoid the major health issues. Typically, breast cancer develops in either the ducts or the lobules of the breast. Lobules refer to the glands that produce milk, whereas ducts refer to the pathways that bring the milk to the nipples from the glands. If you feel any kind of pain or uneasiness in your breast, consult the doctor as soon as possible. You need to be careful because once the cancer cells enter the lymph nodes, they can also easily enter the other parts of the body. KD Blossom is known as a famous women's and children's hospital in Ahmedabad. You can visit KD hospital to get the best breast treatment in Ahmedabad.

Symptoms Of Breast Cancer?

• Swelling in various areas of the breast
• Nipple or breast pain
• Nipple is turning inward.
• Dry, red, thickened and flaking breast
• Nipple discharge, not milk but with or without milk
• Orange peel appearances, skin puckering or dimpling
• Swollen lymph nodes around the collar bone and under the arm

These symptoms can occur at any stage and type of cancer, such as HER2-positive, Triple-negative, breast cancer, or hormone receptor-positive. If you diagnose it at the right time, there are multiple treatments available for breast cancer. Therefore; proper study and knowledge regarding breast cancer are required to avoid bigger issues. You can book an appointment with our breast care specialist who uses the most advanced and innovative diagnostic and treatment techniques. Our breast radiologists are experts in performing image-guided biopsies as well as image-guided procedures.

Less common types of breast cancer are described in the below section:

• Paget disease of the nipple: This kind of cancer first begins in the ducts of the nipple, but it grows and starts spreading in other parts of the body as well. It also affects the skin and areola of the nipple.
• Angiosarcoma: This cancer mainly grows on the lymph vessels and blood vessels in the body. This can be treated effectively if diagnosed on time.
• Phyllodes cancer: This is a very rare kind of cancer that mainly grows in the connective tissue of the breast. In this case, most of the tumours are benign while some are cancerous.

Most common types of breast cancer are described in the below section:

• Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS): DCIS refers to the non-invasive condition of breast cancer. In this condition, cancer cells are confined to the ducts in the breast and haven’t invaded the surrounding breast tissue.
• Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS): refers to breast cancer that mainly grows in the milk producing glands of the breast. This is also similar to DCIS where the cells haven’t invaded the surrounding breast tissue.
• Invasive ductal carcinoma: This is the most common type of breast cancer. It first begins in the breast ducts and then invades the nearby tissues of the breast. This cancer can be spread to the other parts of the body and can be harmful.
• Invasive lobular carcinoma: ILC first develops in breast and then starts spreading to the others parts of the body and nearby tissue.

Stages Of Breast Cancer- What Kind Of Treatment Will I Need?

Stages of cancer help in identifying how much cancer is in the body. It can be determined by several factors, such as the size and location of the tumor in your body.

• Stage 0:This is a kind of non-invasive cancer that refers to the condition where cancer hasn’t broken out from the breast ducts.
• Stage 1:At this stage, cancer cells have spread to other body parts as well as nearby breast tissue.
• Stage 2:At this stage, the tumour is smaller than 2 centimetres and has spread to underarm lymph nodes. There is also a chance that the tumor is larger than 5 CM but has not spread to underarm lymph nodes.
• Stage 3:Here, the cancer has spread beyond the point of origin and is hence known as locally advanced cancer.
• Stage 4:This stage is known as metastatic breast cancer, where cancer has spread to the other areas of your body, such as the liver, lungs, bones, and brain.

You can visit KD Blossom Hospital if you see any of those symptoms of breast cancer. We offer complete diagnostic and management services for cancerous and noncancerous breast diseases. Our focus is to create awareness about breast self-examination and teach how it is to be done.