ACS Teams Up with Microsoft on Breast Cancer Guide
In Part:
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer is a malignant (cancer) tumor that starts from cells of the breast. It is found mostly in women, but men can get breast cancer, too. Here we will only talk about breast cancer in women. There is separate information about breast cancer in men available in our document, Breast Cancer in Men.
Parts of the normal breast
In order to understand breast cancer, it is helpful to have some basics about the normal structure or parts of the breasts, as shown in the picture below.
A woman’s breast is made up of glands that make breast milk (called lobules), ducts (small tubes that carry milk from the lobules to the nipple), fatty and connective tissue, blood vessels, and lymph (pronounced limf) vessels. Most breast cancers begin in the cells that line the ducts (ductal cancer), some begin in the lobules (lobular cancer), and a small number start in other tissues.
The lymph system
The lymph system is important because it is one of the ways in which breast cancers can spread. This system has several parts.
Lymph nodes are small, bean-shaped collections of immune system cells (cells that are important in fighting infections) that are connected by lymphatic vessels. Lymphatic vessels are like small veins, except that they carry a clear fluid called lymph (instead of blood) away from the breast. Breast cancer cells can enter lymphatic vessels and begin to grow in lymph nodes.
Most lymph vessels of the breast lead to lymph nodes under the arm. These are called axillary nodes. If breast cancer cells reach the underarm lymph nodes and continue to grow, they cause the nodes to swell. It is important to know whether cancer cells have spread to lymph nodes because if they have, there is a higher chance that the cells have also gotten into the bloodstream and spread to other places in the body. This could affect the treatment plan.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:58 am
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThose searching for breast cancer help on Microsoft’s Live Search Health tool can now get up-to-date American Cancer Society information on that topic. The American Cancer Society has published “Health Guide: Breast Cancer Overview” on … [...]
October 15th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
[...] Read the rest of the post here: ACS Teams Up with Microsoft on Breast Cancer Guide [...]