Skip to main content

Breast Cancer - when does it spread?

Picture cancer spreading
Article Date: 20 Jun 2012 

According to a study published in theMedical Journal of Australia, important information regarding prognosis can now be given to women who are diagnosed with early breast cancer. 

Dr Sarah Lord from the NHMRC Clinical Trials Center at the University of Sydney and her team note that in Australia, 1 in 10 women diagnosed with non-metastaticbreast cancer will develop metastatic cancerwithin five years. However, this figure increases to 1 in 6 women if the cancer has metastasized to adjacent tissue or nearby lymph nodes.

The researchers set out to determine how many women diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer develop the metastatic form of the disease by examining 6,644 NSW women who were diagnosed between 2001 and 2002. 

The women were classified into two groups: 

Localized - women with nodenegative tumor confined to breast tissue
Regional - those with spread to adjacent tissues or nearby lymph nodes

Although the risk of metastatic disease was 10% for both groups, the researchers found that only 1 in 20 women with localized cancer subsequently developed metastatic breast cancer (MBC) within 5 years.

According to the researchers, the study findings show that, in addition to underlying tumor biology, the spread of disease at diagnosis continues to be a vital prognostic factor. They explain: "Clinicians can use these estimates to inform women with breast cancer about the average risks of developing MBC."

The team found that women under 50 years of age and those living in areas of lower socio-economic status had the highest risk of developing MBC. Furthermore, women were more likely to be diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in the second year after initial breast cancer diagnosis.

The researchers said: "This information may provide some reassurance for women who completed their primary breast cancer treatment more than 2 years ago and remain recurrence free." 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Hard nipples" - areola or nipple skin

Someone once wrote"... when i get really cold, or get goosebumbs all over my body, the whole things really scrunch up, like, my entire areola scrunches itself up into a wrinkled little mound. it looks really weird and ugly, and i haven't ever seen other people's breasts do it. what is wrong with my areola/nipples??" The answer: Well nothing is wrong. This is what my areola does too. It's a normal reaction to the coldness or to irritation / stimulation. The little muscles in the areola do a similar goosebump thing as your other skin can do. People often call this phenomenon "hard nipples". Also note that skin on areola has less feeling or sensation to it than other areas of your body. If the areola was very sensitive, then breastfeeding would probably be quite uncomfortable because the baby pulls and tugs it! The nipples are sensitive but the sensitivity changes with hormonal changes, such as occur at mestrual cycle or pregnancy. Also this v...
8 comments
Read more

Monumental cleavage alert! Did Natalie Portman get a boob job?

Black Swan Oscar winner Natalie Portman has sparked feverish debate about whether or not she's had a boob job, after she appeared on camera at an American football game looking bustier than before. The 31-year-old, who gave birth to son Aleph in June 2011, was watching the game in Austin, Texas during a break from shooting the as-yet-untitled new Terrence Malick film. With co-star Michael Fassbender by her side, a newly blonde Natalie was spotted by the cameras during the ABC broadcast. While it could very well be a push-up bra, or a consequence of breast-feeding her bub, Twitter fans immediately speculated about the star's potentially enhanced assets. "Natalie Portman @ the Texas-Baylor game ... boob job? Looks like it!" one user wrote. "Wait a second, did Natalie Portman get a boob job? Is she pregnant? On the sidelines of Texas game and #wow," another tweeted. Comments on the YouTube clip ran along the same lines, albeit many of them ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Loosing a parent!

When a Parent Dies: Dealing with the Loss of Your Mother or Father By David Kessler This is spot on. I guess until you go through this you will never know.  #parents #love #grief #davidkessler #survivor #iamstillawoman  When a parent of an adult dies, there is almost an unspoken expectation that it will not hit you head on. An adult is expected to accept death as a part of life, to handle all sudden losses in an appropriate adult manner. But really, what does that mean? That you should not be sad? That you should be so grateful they didn’t die when you were a child that you don’t need to mourn your parent? The above considerations demonstrate an under-estimation of grief. Grief is the reflection of the connection that has been lost. That loss does not diminish because you are an adult or because your mother or father lived a long life. Our society places enormous pressure on us to get over loss, to get through the grief. But how long do you grieve for the man who...
Post a Comment
Read more