Post #61- Breast Cancer Facts

BREAST CANCER FACTS

Types of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is breast cancer, right? Sure, just like red is red... Actually, we know that red can be crimson or burgundy or scarlet or brick or... And breast cancer comes in many forms. How much do you really know about the different types of breast cancer?

1. How many different breast cancers have been identified?


Researchers have actually identified 14 different breast cancers. The most common is invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), followed by ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), then invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), and inflammatory breast cancer. The remaining 10 cancers are very rare.

2. Whether you have invasive (infiltrating) breast cancer vs. non-invasive (in situ) determines a lot about your treatment. What percentage of women have an initial diagnosis of invasive breast cancer?

80% of women receive an initial diagnosis of invasive breast cancer. And about 85% of those women are diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), the most common type of breast cancer.

3. You can be diagnosed with two types of breast cancer at the same time.

Oftentimes a woman will be diagnosed with both invasive and non-invasive cancers in the same breast. She may have multiple tumors, some of which have spread outside their point of origin to surrounding tissue (invasive), and some of which remain where they started (in situ). Or a woman may be diagnosed with invasive cancer in one breast, and non-invasive in the other. It's rare for a woman to be diagnosed with different kinds of breast cancer (say, both lobular and ductal) at the same time, but it can happen.

4. What percentage of breast cancers are considered curable?

The cure rate for non-invasive breast cancers is currently 98% to 99%, which means doctors consider them curable. Non-invasive breast cancers represent about 20% of all breast cancer diagnoses, so about 20% of all breast cancer is assumed to be curable right from the get-go. What does that mean for the other 80%? It means that you have a longer wait to see whether or not you've been cured. The common assumption is that if you're treated for cancer and go 20 years without a recurrence, you're cured.

The great majority women with invasive breast cancer don't die from it. Statistically speaking, about 1 in 5 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer eventually dies from it. And those cancers detected early, before they've spread to the lymph nodes, have much less chance of recurrence. So even with a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer, your chances are pretty darned good that it won't be the eventual cause of your death. And with continuing improvements in treatment, those odds are looking better all the time.

5. This breast cancer is aggressive, fast-growing, and often misdiagnosed. Which of the following best fits this description?

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) occurs when cancer cells block your breast's lymph system. It's aggressive and fast-growing. And unfortunately, since its symptoms can include redness, swelling, and a rash, it's commonly misdiagnosed as an infection, a sunburn, allergic reaction to an insect bite, or mastitis.



Thank you PJ Hamel for providing these Breast Cancer Facts!