Did you know that breast cancer is considered as one of the most invasive cancers in women and is the second leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer? However, the precise causes of breast cancer in female are still unclear. The main risks involved in breast cancer are being older and someone having breast cancer in your family. And this risk spikes up for women with certain types of benign breast lumps and for women who have had ovarian cancer in the past. And also if you have had breast cancer earlier, you can get it again, too.

What are the Breast Cancer Causes and Symptoms?

Considerable changes in the DNA can cause normal breast cells to turn into cancer. Some DNA changes are even passed on from parents and can considerably increase your risk of developing breast cancer. Lifestyle-related factors, like what you eat and how much you work out, can increase your chance of having a breast cancer. Hormones play a significant role in majority cases of breast cancer, but how it actually happens is not fully understood.

Taking about the symptoms, the initial symptoms of breast cancer generally looks like a area of thickened tissues in the breast or a lump in the breast or an armpit. Some of the other symptoms include:

• Breast cancer causes pain in the armpits or breast that does not change with the monthly cycle
• Redness of the skin of the breast, just like the surface of an orange
• Rash around any one of the nipples
• Discharge from a nipple, containing blood
• A sunken or inverted nipple
• Change in shape and size of the breast
• Peeling or flaking _of the skin on the breast

Most of the breast lumps are not cancerous. Hence, women should visit a medical oncologist in Kolkata.

What are the Stages of Breast Cancer?

A doctor stages breast cancer depending on the size of the tumor and whether or not it is spread to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body. There are different ways of staging the breast cancer, like:

• Stage 0

Known as ductal carcinoma in position, the cells are limited to within the ducts and haven’t invaded the surrounding tissues

• Stage 1

In this stage, the tumor measures up to 2 centimeters across. The cancer in this stage hasn’t affected any of the lymph nodes, or there are small groups of cancer cells in the lymph nodes.

• Stage 2

The tumor becomes 2 cm in size, and has begun to spread to its nearby nodes, or is just 2-5 cm across and has not spread to the lymph nodes.

• Stage 3

The tumor in this stage is up to 5cm, and has spread to various lymph nodes or the tumor is larger than 5 cm and has also spread to few lymph nodes.

• Stage 4

Cancer has spread to distant organs, most common being the bones, liver, brain, and the lungs.

To conclude, there is no way to prevent breast cancer. However, certain lifestyle changes can considerably minimize the risk of breast cancer as well as its other types.