Overview:

Cancer that is found in the cells of the breast is called breast cancer. Breast cancer is very common in women. It occurs when the mutation of genes regulates the growth of cells. The mutation allows uncontrolled cells to divide and multiply. Cancer also occures in the fatty tissues of the breast. Cancer cells at times invade other tissues and affect lymph nodes of underarms, opines a breast cancer doctor in Kolkata.

Symptoms:

•Breast pain
•Pitted, red skin on the breast
•A breast lump
•A thick portion on the breast
•Inverted nipple
•Change in skin
•Scaling, peeling, or crusting of pigmented skin
•Changes in the shape of the nipple
•The position of the nipple may change
•A spot under the skin
•Discharge from nipple

Causes and risk factors of breast cancer:

Some risk factors cannot be controlled. But some are in your hands that you can try to control so that you can prevent cancer.

Risks that are not in your hands:

• Age: Older women are more prone to breast cancer than young women.
• Dense breasts: Women with dense breasts have more connective tissues than fatty ones. It becomes hard to find tumors on a mammogram.
• Family history: If your mother, sister, father, or brother had breast cancer, you have high chances to get affected by breast cancer. This family history increases the risk of breast cancer. If any of your first-degree female relatives was diagnosed with breast cancer before her menopause, then it becomes riskier for you.
• Menstrual history: if your periods start before 12 or if it doesn’t stop after 55 then your cancer odds go up.
• Radiation: if you had to be treated with radiation previously, you have a risk of breast cancer.

Risks that you can have control over- by a specialist of The Cancer Solutions, who provides the best cancer surgery services in Kolkata:

  • Physical activity: Move more to have a lesser risk of cancer.
  • Diet: A proper diet can keep you away from cancer.
    Weight: If you are overweight and remain so even after your menopause then you have a risk of having breast cancer.
  • Alcohol: Drinking causes cancer.
  • Smoking: Smoking increases the chance of getting affected by breast cancer.
  • Reproductive history: If you have your first child after 30 or if you didn’t have a full-term process of pregnancy, you have a risk of cancer. If you don’t breastfeed your child, this also can increase the chances of having breast cancer.
  • Taking hormones: A best breast cancer surgeon in Kolkata says that if a person goes through some replacement process that includes hormones like estrogens and progesterone, and continues the process for 5 years, the risk factor of breast cancer gets higher.
  • Pills or so: Birth control pills or other methods to control birth increase the risk of breast cancer.