While the cases of breast cancer as well as the recovery rate continues to rise, breast cancer is nothing new to today's society. Breast cancer has been around for centuries. Cases of breast cancer have been dated back to the Egyptians when they would burn away (cauterize) the cancerous tissues. Surgery was an extremely immoderate treatment considering there was no anesthesia available. According to the doctrines of the Greek physician Caudius Galen (130-200 AD), whose works on physiology and anatomy dominated medical thought until the Middle Ages, melancholia was the chief factor in the development of breast cancer. (Breast Cancer Society of Canada) Patients were put on special diets and sometimes exorcism was recommended.

In the Rennassance Era, Andreas Vesalius, an anatomist, thought of the mastectomy, which is still used today. The spread of the

Breast cancer is seen more often in women over forty-five. It's unlikely for women in their twenties to be diagnosed, its possible but unlikely. The chance increases into the thirties and forties, but dramatically increases after the age of fifty. Fifty percent of breast cancer is diagnosed in women over sixty-five indicating the ongoing necessity of yearly screening throughout a woman's life.(www.nationalbreastcancer.org 2.)

Eighty to eighty-five percent of breast cancer cases happen in women with no family history of breast cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that 211,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed this year, and 43,300 people will die from it. Breast cancer is an "epidemic" among women and we don't know why. Breast cancer is not completely a disease of women. For every 100 women with breast cancer, 1 male will develop the disease. The American Cancer Society estimates that 1,600 men will develop the disease this year. (www.thebreastcancersite.com)

When women undergo treatments and the cancer cells seem to be gone, they are not. The cells are just in remission. Most women who have had tumors and are in remission have recurrent cancer, meaning the cancer cells start reproducing and taking over normal cells again. Most recurrences appear within the first two or three years after treatment, but breast cancer can recur many years later, and come back multiple times. (Ida Priano)

A lump or thickening in or near the breast or in the underarm area.

There are five stages of breast cancer. The first stage is Stage 0, or more commonly known as noninvasive carcinoma. These abnormal cells rarely become invasive, but give a women an increasing chance of developing breast cancer. Stage I and II are early stages of breast cancer. The cancer spreads beyond the lobe or duct and invades the nearby tissue. The tumor is no longer than an inch across in stage I. In stage II the tumor in the breast is less than 1 inch across and the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm; or the tumo

Some topics in this essay:
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