About 1 and 8 women will develop breast cancer at some time in her life. This ratio represents a woman's lifetime risk. Thus, not until the age of 80 does a woman's risk of breast cancer rise to 1 in 8. About 180,00 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer and about 44,000 will die from it making breast cancer the second leading cause of cancer death for women. Mortality rates are falling in white women but not in black. The decline in whites may be due to earlier detection and improved treatment. Never the less breast cancer is a disease that needs to be taken seriously. With better education about the disease you can live a longer and healthier lifestyle.
             Breast Cancer comes in two types, Ductal and lobular carcinoma. It is a malignant tumor in the glandular tissues of the breast. Such tumors form when the chemical processes that control normal cell growth break down, allowing a single abnormal cell to multiply at a rapid rate (also known as hyperplasia). Carcinomas, which tend to destroy an increasing proportion of normal breast tissue over time, may spread, or metastasize, to other parts of the body. The cancer most commonly develops in the upper outer quadrant of the breast.
             Warning signals of breast cancer include persistent breast changes such as a lump, thickening, swelling, dimpling, skin irritation, distortion, retraction or scaliness of the nipple, nipple discharge, pain, or tenderness. Risk factors for breast cancer may vary considerably. Typically, risk factors include being over the age of 40, having a primary relative (grandmother, mother, or sister) who had breast cancer, never having had children or having breast-fed, having your first child after the age of 30, having had early menarche, having had a late age of menopause, lengthy exposure to cyclic estrogen, and having a higher education and socioeconomic status. All women are at risk and men can receive breast cancer in their lifeti...