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Breast Cancer
Breast cancer originates as tumors that begin in the breast tissue. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, other than skin cancer. While it usually affects women, men can also get breast cancer, although this is rare. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 212,930 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to occur among women in the United States during 2005. The American Cancer Society predicts an estimated 40,870 women will die from breast cancer in 2005. The death rate for women with breast cancer has declined recently, which is probably the result of earlier detection and improved treatment. The earlier that breast cancer is found, the better the chances for successful treatment. Early detection of breast cancer is key - and PET scanning can help. DiagnosisThere are several types of breast tumors. In fact, some of the most common lumps in the breasts aren't really "tumors" at all - many lumps are fibrocystic changes, which are not malignant. Other tumors are malignant. Some common breast cancers include:
Screening is the most important way to find breast cancer early. To do this, the American Cancer Society recommends that a woman have a:
These screening criteria are set up because the most common sign of breast cancer is a new lump or mass. A lump that is painless, hard, and has irregular edges is more likely to be cancer. It's important to have anything unusual checked by your doctor. Other signs of breast cancer include the following:
If breast cancer is found early, prompt treatment could save your life. If a lesion is found and it is questionable whether or not it is malignant, PET Scanning may help. Mammograms are used most commonly to x-ray the breast. During a mammogram, the breast is pressed between two plates for a few seconds while pictures are taken. Although this may cause some discomfort, it is necessary to get a good picture. Very low levels of radiation are used. The current standard of care relies on physical examination, mammography and/or ultrasound, and fine needle aspiration to diagnose a breast cancer. PET can show whether or not a lump in the breast is benign or malignant. PET may prove to be a very useful addition to mammography. Specifically, patients with breast implants, dense breasts, and others may benefit from having a PET scan to help look for a lesion in the breast. PET scans, now available at the PET center nearest you , are a relatively new test that helps doctor's learn more about breast cancer - it may even prevent an unnecessary biopsy in some patients. Top of this Page | Back to Cancer Information TreatmentThe doctors diagnose the cancer and determine what kind it is by looking at a sample of the tumor under a microscope. This alone does not determine what treatment you can have. Before treatment, your doctors must determine if or how much the breast cancer has spread. This is called staging the cancer. The outlook for your recovery and your treatment options, which may include surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy, depend upon the stage of the cancer. If breast cancer is found and treated before it has spread to lymph nodes or other organs, the five-year survival rate is extremely high - about 98%. Early diagnosis and treatment is critical for breast cancer. PET is the most useful noninvasive test that you can have when doctors are staging or re-staging breast cancer because it is more accurate than any other test in finding local or distant disease. Although PET cannot see microscopic disease, it can detect clusters of tumor cells that have taken hold in other tissues or organs in the body. Top of this Page | Back to Cancer Information How PET works:In cancer, cells begin to grow at a much faster rate, feeding on sugars like glucose. PET works by using a small amount of a radioactive drug called a tracer in combination with a compound such as glucose. Once you are injected with the tracer and glucose, the tracer travels through your body. It emits signals as it travels and eventually collects in the organs targeted for examination. If an area in an organ is cancerous, the signals will be stronger since more glucose will be absorbed in those areas. In a majority of breast cancer cases, if the cancer has affected the lymph nodes nearby the tumor, they will take up more of the radioactive glucose. Whether or not lymph nodes are involved is a critical factor in deciding what treatment to utilize. In a single whole-body picture, the PET scan can look throughout your whole body to see if there are any clumps of the cancer cells to indicate that the cancer has spread. The PET scan can make the difference in your recovery. The type of treatment that can be done is based on both the type of cancer cells found as well as the stage of the cancer. Surgery may be recommended to remove the breast tumor, and perhaps your doctor may also recommend chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy as well. Breast cancer can spread to nearly anywhere in the body, but most commonly it spreads to the brain, bone, and liver. After first showing the doctors where the cancer cells are, PET can also see if the chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy has been effective at killing them. Top of this Page | Back to Cancer Information Follow-UpAfter treatment, it is important to know if any active cancer cells remain in the body. In the past, the amount and type of chemotherapy that was used, as well as the area treated by the radiation beams in radiation therapy, was according to standard rules. PET allows the type and amount of therapy to be tailored specifically to you, the patient, depending upon the location and extent of your type of cancer. Continue with an annual mammogram. If anything suggests that the cancer might have come back in either your breast or elsewhere, the doctor will want to do more tests. Treatment could involve surgery, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, or chemotherapy. During this time, PET can be used to image breast tumor response to therapy and to detect recurrence in treated lesions. Post surgery and other treatments, PET is extremely important in order to monitor and see if the cancer cells have returned. If the cancer cells have been killed by the treatment, they will not absorb any of the radioactive glucose given in the PET scan. After treatment, although the tumor masses may still be present and seen on CT scans, the cells may no longer be alive - which can be shown by PET. Conversely, if the cancer cells have come back in either lymph nodes or scar tissue from surgery or another lesion, PET can see the accumulation of the radioactive glucose much sooner than a CT scan - treatment can be re-started sooner, improving your chance of beating this disease. Top of this Page | Back to Cancer Information More InformationFind the support you need:The stress of illness can often be helped by joining a support group where members share common experiences and problems. Support programs exist in a variety of formats, including counseling, support groups, and self-help programs. For those who cannot attend meetings, there are also on-line mechanisms that may allow a patient to "chat" with other people facing similar situations. These types of programs can provide a way for you to relate your experience firsthand with others and may provide treatment-related tips about drug side-effects that will be helpful to you. Online Resources:
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