How to treat breast cancer?

Breast cancer is the most common oncological disease among women. Annually around the world diagnose about a million cases of breast cancer in women of all ages. For many, this terrible diagnosis sounds like a sentence, but in fact, breast cancer in many cases is successfully treatable. The key to success lies, first of all, in the timely detection of the disease and the implementation of appropriate preventive measures.

The main problem of many women is a careless attitude to one's own health. Not all people have regular self-examination and visit a gynecologist and mammologist. Nevertheless, if you are not indifferent to your future, you are simply obliged to monitor all the alarm signals that our body provides and be able to detect breast cancer or any other disease in time.

So, in order to protect yourself from breast cancer, you need to perform a self-examination of the mammary glands once a month. It is advisable to do this at the same time of the menstrual cycle. Below are the symptoms of breast cancer, when you need to consult a mammologist:

• Seal in the chest (most often the size of a pea)
• Changing the size or shape of the breast
• Change the shape of the nipple
• Swelling of the breast
• Discharge from the nipples (bloody or light)
• Changes in the skin of the breast (redness or pimple).

If you find the slightest warning signs, you should contact your doctor as soon as possible. Remember that the diagnosis of breast cancer in the early stages several times increases the probability of a successful outcome of treatment.

Treatment of breast cancer largely depends on the stage of the disease. Thus, depending on the size and prevalence of the tumor, these stages of cancer are distinguished:

Stage 1. The tumor is no more than 2 cm without spreading to the lymph nodes.

Step 2A. The tumor is no more than 2 cm with metastases in the axillary lymph nodes or a tumor from 2 to 5 cm without metastases.

Stage 2B. Tumor from 2 to 5 cm with metastases in the axillary lymph nodes or a tumor more than 5 cm without metastases.

Step 3A. A tumor more than 5 cm with metastases in the axillary lymph nodes.

Stage 3B. A tumor with metastases outside the breast.

Stage 4. Tumor with metastases in distant parts of the body and organs.

Cancer treatment is prescribed after determining the stage of tumor development, as well as after a full examination of the patient. In most cases, treatment requires surgical removal of the tumor. Depending on its size, the operation can be performed with preservation or with the removal of the mammary gland. Usually, breast preservation is possible only at stage 1 cancer.

After surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy is used to kill the remaining cancer cells. Chemotherapy consists in taking medications that have the ability to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy implies a local effect on the affected areas of the body. Both treatments have side effects and are difficult to tolerate by patients.

In almost all cases, treatment of breast cancer is carried out in a complex way, that is, using several methods. The prognosis of the cure depends on the stage of the disease, as well as on the general health of the patient.

During the treatment it is very important to adhere to a healthy diet, even though the drugs are blunting the appetite. The body should receive enough vitamins and calories to have the strength and energy to fight the disease.