Breast cancer is a serious condition which affects one in twelve women at some pint in their life. Fortunately, however, it is no longer typically either life threatening or permanently scarring.
Breast cancer was once very mysterious and while there is still much that remains unknown about breast cancer the disease itself is reasonably well understood. In some cases the underlying causes are still a mystery but the way in which it acts and spreads is much better understood nowadays.
The risks of breast cancer in terms of just who gets it, the pros and cons of different forms of treatment, survival rates and much more are all much easier to quantify than they once were.
The effects of diet are also becoming clearer and there can be little doubt that low estrogen producing diets and lifestyles are strongly indicated as beneficial. For many women this means a low fat diet combined with regular exercise.
Diagnosis has reached the point at which as few as 50 clumped cancer cells can be identified and chemical tests for early detection are getting both more sophisticated and cheaper. Ultrasound too is far more commonly used these days. Treatments now range from the time honored lumpectomy or mastectomy through chemotherapy and radiation to advanced hormone treatments.
However, even with all the innovation self-examination is still one of the best practices and mammograms remain a low cost, low risk and low discomfort method of detecting tumors.
Recovery from breast cancer is faster and fewer recurrences are seen thanks to a combination of more precise diagnosis and treatment and computer aided analysis through digital mammography makes reviewing test results far more accurate than it used to be.
Where a woman, or indeed a man, has contracted breast cancer and needs surgery modern improved reconstructive techniques are also helping. The FDA has recently decided to allow silicone implants and implantation and plastic surgery generally have become less burdensome. In fact, patients can now often leave hospital the same day as their surgery.
Commonly today for almost all of those people who receive early diagnosis and treatment while their breast cancer is still in Stage 0 or Stage I will live longer than five years and many people experience no recurrence and are not bothered with breast cancer for the remainder of their lives.
This once almost always fatal disease has not yet been reduced to the level of a mere annoyance and it is still a serious condition which requires careful consideration of all options. However, thanks to modern medicine many millions of sufferers today can enjoy a cancer free life following treatment.
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