By Arret Jatta
Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an important time dedicated to raising awareness about one of the most common cancers affecting individuals globally. The month is also dedicated to educating the public about its symptoms and prevention, and fund research into its causes, treatment, and cure.
Breast cancer is a kind of cancer that begins as a growth of cells in the breast tissue. After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women in the world. But breast cancer doesn’t just happen in women. Everyone is born with some breast tissue, so anyone can get breast cancer.
What is the demographic of breast cancer in the Gambia?
The Gambia has one of the lowest survival rates for breast cancer in Africa. Contributing factors are late presentation, delays within the healthcare system, and decreased availability of resources.
Across the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the incidence of breast cancer is increasing, and in The Gambia, the incidence is increasing the most in women younger than 50 years of age, with up to 71% of cases diagnosed in this age group. In 1986, the Gambia National Cancer Registry became one of the few nationwide population-based cancer registries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Current data from this registry, which is the data source for the Globocan 2020 estimates identifies breast cancer as the second most common cancer in women.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
Some warning signs of breast cancer are:
- New lump in the breast or underarm (armpit).
- Thickening or swelling of part of the breast.
- Irritation or dimpling of breast skin.
- Redness or flaky skin in the nipple area or the breast.
- Pulling in of the nipple or pain in the nipple area.
- Nipple discharge other than breast milk, including blood.
- Any change in the size or the shape of the breast.
- Pain in any area of the breast.
It is also important to note that different people have different symptoms of breast cancer and some people do not have any signs or symptoms at all. This is why getting regular breast cancer screenings is so important.
What are the types of breast cancer?
There are several types of breast cancer, including invasive and non-invasive types, and types named after how the cells look under a microscope.
- Invasive breast cancer: These cancers have spread beyond the breast’s ducts or lobules into the surrounding tissue.
- Invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC): The most common type of invasive breast cancer, accounting for 70–80% of diagnoses.
- Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC): The second most common type of invasive breast cancer, accounting for 10–15% of diagnoses.
- Inflammatory breast cancer: An aggressive type of invasive breast cancer that causes the breast to look inflamed.
- Special types: These types are named after how the cells look under a microscope, and include tubular, medullary, mucinous, and cribriform
- Other types: These include Paget’s disease of the breast, phyllodes tumors of the breast, and male breast cancer.
What are causes of breast Cancer?
Breast cancer occurs when there are changes to the DNA in breast tissue cells, which can be caused by a number of factors:
- A family history of breast cancer. If a parent, sibling or child had breast cancer, your risk of breast cancer is increased. The risk is higher if your family has a history of getting breast cancer at a young age. The risk also is higher if you have multiple family members with breast cancer. Still, most people diagnosed with breast cancer don’t have a family history of the disease.
- A personal history of breast cancer. If you’ve had cancer in one breast, you have an increased risk of getting cancer in the other breast.
- A personal history of breast conditions. Certain breast conditions are markers for a higher risk of breast cancer. These conditions include lobular carcinoma in situ, also called LCIS, and atypical hyperplasia of the breast. If you’ve had a breast biopsy that found one of these conditions, you have an increased risk of breast cancer.
- Beginning your period at a younger age. Beginning your period before age 12 increases your risk of breast cancer.
- Beginning menopause at an older age. Beginning menopause after age 55 increases the risk of breast cancer.
- Being female. Women are much more likely than men are to get breast cancer. Everyone is born with some breast tissue, so anyone can get breast cancer.
- Dense breast tissue. Breast tissue is made up of fatty tissue and dense tissue. Dense tissue is made of milk glands, milk ducts and fibrous tissue. If you have dense breasts, you have more dense tissue than fatty tissue in your breasts. Having dense breasts can make it harder to detect breast cancer on a mammogram. If a mammogram showed that you have dense breasts, your risk of breast cancer is increased. Talk with your healthcare team about other tests you might have in addition to mammograms to look for breast cancer.
- Drinking alcohol. Drinking alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer.
- Having your first child at an older age. Giving birth to your first child after age 30 may increase the risk of breast cancer.
- Having never been pregnant. Having been pregnant one or more times lowers the risk of breast cancer. Never having been pregnant increases the risk.
- Increasing age. The risk of breast cancer goes up as you get older.
- Inherited DNA changes that increase cancer risk. Certain DNA changes that increase the risk of breast cancer can be passed from parents to children.
- Menopausal hormone therapy. Taking certain hormone therapy medicines to control the symptoms of menopause may increase the risk of breast cancer. The risk is linked to hormone therapy medicines that combine estrogen and progesterone. The risk goes down when you stop taking these medicines.
- Obesity. People with obesity have an increased risk of breast cancer.
- Radiation exposure. If you received radiation treatments to your chest as a child or young adult, your risk of breast cancer is higher.
Things you can do to lower your risk of breast cancer:
- Ask about breast cancer screening. Talk with your doctor or other healthcare professional about when to begin breast cancer screening. Ask about the benefits and risks of screening. Together, you can decide what breast cancer screening tests are right for you.
- Become familiar with your breasts through breast self-exam for breast awareness. You may choose to become familiar with your breasts by occasionally inspecting them during a breast self-exam for breast awareness. If there is a new change, a lump or something not typical in your breasts, report it to a healthcare professional right away.
- Exercise most days of the week. Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise on most days of the week. If you haven’t been active lately, ask a healthcare professional whether it’s OK and start slowly.
- Maintain a healthy weight. If your weight is healthy, work to maintain that weight. If you need to lose weight, ask a healthcare professional about healthy ways to lower your weight. Eat fewer calories and slowly increase the amount of exercise.
Cancer can however be treated in many ways including:
- Surgery: A common treatment that involves removing the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue. Surgery is most effective when the cancer is localized and hasn’t spread.
- Chemotherapy: Uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be given alone or in combination with other treatments.
- Radiation therapy: Uses high doses of radiation to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation therapy can be used alone or with other treatments.
- Targeted therapy: Targets changes in cancer cells that help them grow, divide, and spread.
- Immunotherapy: Helps your immune system fight cancer.
- Hormonal therapy: Reduces the level of hormones in the body or blocks hormones from reaching cancer cells.
- Stem cell transplant: Restores stem cells that grow into blood cells
- Bone marrow transplant: Replaces cells damaged by chemotherapy and other treatments with healthy bone marrow stem cells.
It is important to note that the type of treatment you receive depends on the type of cancer you have, and how advanced it is. Your health care provider will recommend one or more ways to treat your cancer.
