Knowing your body well will help you know normal changes and changes that need medical attention. Having regular check ups gives you great defense against cancer.

The Following Are Some Symptoms of Cancer To look for:

- Unfamiliar pain in your breast or in the armpit – It’s unusual in the sense that the pain is different from how you feel when you have monthly periods. Also if you feel it in one rather than both breasts. If it is not caused by hormonal changes then go to the doctor for a check up.

- A lump or a tumor in the breast or in the armpit – Sometimes is caused by hormonal changes but if it persists don’t wait before it is too late. Go for screening and know the cause of swelling.

- A change in size or shape of the mature breast – If you notice any changes in a mature breast more so if it’s occurring on one breast only. That is a cause for alarm to seek health professional for cancer breast examination.

- Fluid other than milk leaking from the nipple – During your menopause you may experience non-blood leakage from nipples of both breasts due to hormonal changes. But if it occurs on one breast only, then you need medical attention.

- Change in size of the nipple – When your body weight changes it is natural for the nipple to change its size too. But if it retracts in and doesn’t return to its normal shape, seek help from your doctor for cancer manual examination. If there is a problem below the surface of the nipple then having a diagnostic mammogram or ultrasound may be the best option.

- Changes of color, shape or texture of the nipple – If you notice puckers, a rash on the nipple skin or darker skin that around the nipple. And after using some cream still doesn’t help, then don’t waste more time consult doctor when still in its curable stage.

However it is important to know that breast implants, usage of antiperspirants, and wearing under wire bras do not raise your risk for breast cancer. There is also no proven evidence yet to link breast cancer and abortion.

After mastectomy, women are sent to see the oncologists, and they are often told to go for chemotherapy. This treatment is like an “insurance” against future problems. Chemotherapy can kill all the remaining cancer cells in the body. In this way the cancer can be cured. Chemotherapy can also stop cancer from spreading to other parts of the body. Or at the very least it slows the cancer growth. To the oncologists, chemotherapy is the proven way to go, other ways are hocus pocus!

These points are often well taken by women in general. The fear of recurrence is sufficient enough to make women go through chemotherapy. To them, the sufferings of the treatment are worth enduring for the promise of cure at the end of the adventure. What some oncologists don’t tell their patients is that not all the cancer cells are killed by the treatment. There is no way that a hundred percent of the cancer cells can be wiped by chemotherapy. Add to that, even the good healthy cells are killed and the immune system destroyed.

Patients, on the other hand don’t ask these questions: Will there truly be a cure? If indeed the promise of cure is real, can we put it in terms of real numbers or percentage? To put it bluntly, how effective is chemotherapy for breast cancer? I wonder how many women ask their oncologists these questions, and if they do, what would the answers be like?

a) Without chemotherapy what percentage of people died or would die from breast cancer?

b) With chemotherapy what percentage of people are cured or would be cured?

c) What is meant by cure?

Try and search the answers from the internet and see if you can get anything. There is a great chance that you will go on a merry go round trip! I experienced exactly just that and was terribly disappointed. Thousands of articles are written about breast cancer but I fail to find the clear-cut answers to the above questions. Perhaps they are not important? Or something that women do not need to know before they embark on their treatment? Women just need to have full faith and trust in the experts and everything would turn out fine. Few women realize that such attitude may just be the beginning of more problems to come.

Let me try to share what I have gathered from the medical literature.

Karin Stabiner in her book (To dance with the devil) wrote: “Breast cancer takes the life of an American woman every twelve minutes. There is no sure cure for the disease, no known way to prevent it and no means of predicting.” With all the advances in science and technology, may I ask, how could this be? Why such high degree of uncertainty?

Chantal Bernard-Marty, Fatima Cardoso, Martine J. Piccart of Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium (The Oncologist 9: 617-632, Nov. 2004) wrote: “20%-85% of patients … who are diagnosed with early breast cancer will later develop recurrent and/or metastatic disease. Despite more than 3 decades of research, metastatic breast cancer remains essentially incurable.” Women are told that “catching” breast cancer early is a sure way of saving life. But how is it that even after early detection, twenty to eighty-five percent of patients still go on to develop more serious cancer that is incurable? Has the treatment protocols got anything to do with such failures?

How effective is chemotherapy?

Writing in Clinical Oncology (2004. 16: 549-560), three Australian doctors: Graeme Morgan, Robyn Ward & Michael Baton noted that in Australia, of the 10,661 people who had breast cancer only 164 people survived five years due to chemotherapy. This works out to 1.5% contribution of chemotherapy to survival. In their paper, they concluded that “overall contribution of curative and adjuvant chemotherapy to five-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA.”

Professor Michael Boyer, head of Medical Oncology of the Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital disputed this 2% figure. He said: “It’s not correct for a number of reasons. The 2% figure is achieved by including a whole series of diseases in which chemotherapy would never be used.” To the professor the more “correct” figures should be 5% or 6%. Okay, let us accept that new figures — how do women feel about it — going for chemotherapy to achieve a five to six percent success?

In the editorial of the Australian Prescriber (2006. 29:2-3), Eva Segelov wrote: “Chemotherapy has been oversold. Chemotherapy has improved survival by less than 3% in adults with cancer.”

Veroort et al. from the Netherlands (British J. Cancer. 2004. 91: 242-247) in their study on the role of tamoxifen and chemotherapy for breast cancer concluded that “breast cancer mortality reduction caused by present-day practice of adjuvant tamoxifen and chemotherapy is 7%. Tamoxifen contributes most to the mortality reduction. The overall effect of chemotherapy on mortality is very small.” Take note that the contribution of chemotherapy to breast cancer survival is very small – what is very small? To be sure it has to be much, much less than 7%.

Guy Faguet, after spending numerous years of research on cancer, came to this startling conclusion (The War on Cancer: An anatomy of failure, a blueprint for the future. Springer, 2005): “An objective analysis of cancer chemotherapy outcomes over the last three decades reveals that, despite vast human and financial expenditures, the cell-killing paradigm had failed to achieve its objective … the conquest of cancer remains a distant and elusive goal.” Chemotherapy for cancer is based on “flawed premises with an unattainable goal, cytotoxic chemotherapy in its present form will neither eradicate cancer not alleviate suffering.”

Cured of Breast Cancer?

In a study of 1,547 breast cancer patients at the University of Chicago Hospital, USA, from 1945 to 1987, Theodore Karrison et al. (J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 1999. 91:80-85) observed that for patients who underwent mastectomy but without chemotherapy or radiotherapy, most recurrences occurred within the first ten years after mastectomy. Recurrences were rare after 20 to 25 years. Patients surviving to this time without evidence of recurrence are probably cured.

Women are often told that if they survive five years after their diagnosis of breast cancer, they are considered cured of breast cancer. Based on the work of Karrison et al. this assumption is presumptuous and is not true at all. Women perhaps need to be reminded of what Guy Faguet wrote: “We must recognize that “cure” is not an absolute term because minimal residual or slowly recurrent disease that causes no symptoms can persist and remain undetected for years.” Take note, the cancer can remain dormant in the body for years not just five years!

Breast calcifications are calcium deposits inside breast tissue. They emerge as white spots or flecks on a mammogram and are typically so small that you couldn’t feel them.

Breast calcifications are widespread in all women and are even more common after menopause. Though breast calcifications are typically noncancerous (benign), particular patterns of calcifications – like tight clusters with irregular shapes – might point to breast cancer.

The two major kinds of breast calcifications are:

- Macrocalcifications. They come out as large white dots or dashes on a mammogram. Macrocalcifications are nearly always noncancerous and need no additional follow-up.
- Microcalcifications. They come out as extremely fine white specks on a mammogram. Microcalcifications are typically noncancerous but could sometimes be a sign of cancer.

Where and How Often Do Calcifications come out?

- macrocalcifications show up in roughly 50 percent of women over 50, and 10 percent of women under 50 years of age
- macrocalcifications are typically not troublesome and won’t need a biopsy
- 80 percent of microcalcifications are benign
- microcalcifications could assist identify ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)

A microcalcification is an increase of calcium in one spot. They are widespread and most women will have a few on their mammogram at some point in time. The majority of them are benign. A good number of women do worry regarding them, though – maybe since they haven’t been given a complete clarification of what they are.

When should you worry? First, don’t be frightened if you have microcalcifications since the majority women DO have them at some point. The doctor will take a look to observe if they warrant additional examination.

This typically happens when the microcalcifications are new, clustered firmly together, and comes out when magnified to have unusual forms. Rather than spherical, they look similar to grains of salt with irregular edges. This could be an early sign of breast cancer, most frequently non-invasive ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS or stage 0 breast cancer).

Microcalcifications couldn’t be experienced on clinical exam or your own breast self-exam. They do not harm. This is the value of mammography – it finds them long prior to they could move forward into an actual lump.

Most of the time, suspicious microcalcifications will be biopsied by means of a stereotactic method that enables the doctor to pin down their location and take away a sample consequently it could be examined by a pathologist. The intention of removing tissue by means of this method is not to get rid of all of the microcalcifications but to obtain a representative sampling accordingly a diagnosis could be completed.

Breast cancer is suspected when a lump or thickening in a breast is felt during breast self-examination. Other symptoms that may lead to suspicion are lump in the armpit area, scaly skin on the breast, nipple discharges other than milk, nipple retraction or nipple inversion, reddening of breast skin, change in size or shape of a matured breast, nipple itching and breast pain. These symptoms do not always mean that there is cancer; but once any of these is detected, the person is strongly recommended to visit a doctor for examination. A doctor will confirm the presence of a lump by doing palpation. Palpation means feeling the entire breast. Imaging studies like ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may also be done. Mammography may even be recommended. Once confirmed, a doctor’s only option is to recommend for the patient to undergo a breast biopsy.

This is the procedure where a sample tissue from the suspicious lump is taken. This can be done either by surgical (invasive) or non-surgical (non-invasive) means. In surgical biopsy, sample tissues are taken after an incision is made on the skin. Sometimes, if the lump is small, the entire lump may be removed. Non-surgical procedures include fine needle aspiration biopsy, core needle biopsy and vacuum-assisted breast biopsy. Both fine needle aspiration biopsy and core needle biopsy employ the use of a needle to collect sample tissues. The needle used in core needle biopsy is however thicker and hallow. More samples are also extracted through this procedure. Vacuum-assisted breast biopsy uses a special instrument to remove samples. A probe is inserted and a vacuum is used to suck out breast tissues from where samples are taken. Insertion of probe is guided by imaging machines like ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging or MRI.

A Breast biopsy can be done in a clinic or a hospital, depending on the size of the growth to be examined. For surgical procedures, local anesthesia or general anesthesia may be used. For non-surgical procedures, anesthesia may not be needed. At the most, local anesthesia will be used. These procedures can be done by doctors fast. Risk of complications such as infection is minimal. With or without anesthesia, patients may feel little to no pain at all. Pain or discomfort can be lessened by over-the-counter pain relievers.

Biopsy results range from normal to abnormal. A normal result would mean that there is no sign of cancer present. An abnormal result on the other hand would mean that the lump is either benign or malignant. Benign growths include non-cancerous disorders like cyst, papilloma, fat necrosis and adenofibroma. Malignant or cancerous growths include infiltrating ductal carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, colloid carcinoma, lobular carcinoma, sarcoma, medullary or circumscribed carcinoma and inflammatory carcinoma.

When the result of the breast biopsy shows that the lump is benign, no additional procedures are needed. Regular visits to the doctor for check up will just be recommended. If the procedure shows that the lump is malignant, the doctor may ask for further testing or immediately recommend treatment. It is advised that a second opinion be sought in order to be sure before rushing into any treatment procedures. As breast cancer is a serious matter, diagnostic procedures should also be taken seriously to avoid risks.

You must accept the fact that not all patients who undergo breast cancer treatments are able to survive. It is but natural for you to want to know about the breast cancer survival rate before you decide to go for a particular treatment.

Survival rates differ and it would depend on the stage of the cancer you’re currently in. What is this rate all about?

You can describe the survival rate in several ways such as:

1. Time – upon diagnosis, a patient is given 5-10 years to survive

2. Recurrence – there are times when recurrence take place after the cancer cells have been removed

3. Death risk as compared to other people with the same health condition

Survival rate is usually categorized based on the breast cancer stages. Stage ‘0′ means that the cancer is still non-invasive. The cancerous cells can only be found in the walls of the lump or mass inside the breast.

When you reach Stage 1, the tumor has already grown about 2 cm long and it is already considered invasive. Stage 2A happens when the tumor is already 2 to 5 cm long.

The Stage 2B refers to tumors more or less 2 cm long but some of the auxiliary lymph nodes are already affected. When the tumor reaches above 5 cm and has already affected the lymph nodes, it is already classified as Stage 3A breast cancer; and when the tumor invades the skin of the breasts, the cancer is in Stage 3B. The advanced breast cancer is classified under Stage 4 wherein other organs of the body are already infected with the cancer cells.

The different stages can also be divided into the early stage (0 to 2A), the later stage (2B to 3A and B), and the advanced stage (stage 4). The treatment plan is generally based on the stage of the breast cancer.

Today, the survival rates for breast cancer are 86% (for the 5-year period after diagnosis) and 76% (for the 10-year period).

Breast cancer patients without metastatic has a rate of survival of 96% while those with metastatic has a rate of 21%. The percentage is based on the 5-year period after diagnosis.

There are also established survival rates for each stage of breast cancer within the 5-year period. The following are the rates: Stage 0 – 100%, Stage 1 is 100%, Stage 2A is 92%, Stage 2B is 81%, Stage 3A is 67%, Stage 3B is 54%, and Stage 4 is 20%.

As you can see, if you’re still in the 0 and first stage, you have a 100% chance to recover from the disease. It is therefore very important to detect breast cancer during these stages. Besides, the medications used for the early stages are more affordable as compared to the medications or treatments given to the late stages.

Now, aside from the stages of breast cancer, the survival rate is also affected by other factors like lifestyle, exercise, psychological therapy, and smoking. Did you know that some breast cancer patients are able to live longer because they made changes in their lifestyle?

If you want to determine if you have breast cancer or if this disease runs in the family, it would be best to undergo a mammogram or you can also conduct self examinations. This is one way of discovering mass or lumps in your breast. The breast cancer survival rate is quite high but you’ll need to detect the cancer at an early stage.

Breast cancer is divided into five stages. Stages 0-2 are considered “early”, stage 3 considered “advanced”, and stage 4 “late”. Staging categories are important for predicting future prognosis, and determine optimal treatment recommendations.

Stage 0 is DCIS, or ductal carcinoma in situ. Breast cancer arises from the cells that line the milk ducts. When the cancerous cells are still contained inside the duct, it is diagnosed as DCIS. This can only be determined by a pathologist doctor looking at the tissue under a microscope. In general, when the DCIS lesion is small, there is no need to suspect cancer spread outside the breast.

Stage 1 is invasive or infiltrating cancer. Here, the cancer cells have broken through the duct wall and are found outside the ducts as well. In this case, doctors need to determine whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. Stage 1 breast cancer must be equal or smaller than 2 cm in its invasive component, AND have no spread to lymph nodes. Often, the tissue removed at surgery contain DCIS in addition to the invasive cancer. However, only the dimensions of the invasive cancer count. If the patient needs to have multiple surgeries and the invasive cancer is found at more than one operation, usually the dimensions are added together to arrive at the final size.

Stage 2 has two subcategories. In stage 2A, the invasive cancer can be 2 cm or less and has spread to axillary (armpit) lymph node(s), i.e. positive node(s). Also, the invasive cancer can be as large as 5 cm, but has not spread to lymph nodes, i.e. negative nodes. In stage 2B, the invasive cancer is between 2cm and up to 5 cm and has spread to nodes. Here, cancer may measure even larger than 5 cm if it has not spread to nodes.

Stage 3 includes invasive cancer larger than 5 cm that has spread to lymph nodes. Also, cancer of any size that heavily involves the axillary lymph nodes to the point that these nodes are bulky and stuck together or stuck to other structures in the axilla (armpit) are in this stage. Tumor spread to lymph nodes either above or below the clavicle bone, or to nodes underneath the sternum (breast bone), also falls into this category. Furthermore, if the cancer of any size is attached to the chest wall (pectoralis muscle and/or ribs), it qualifies as stage 3. Inflammatory cancer, where the skin of the breast is red and swollen, is classified in this stage, regardless of size.

Stage 4 is invasive cancer found outside the breast and axillary lymph nodes, or “metastatic” to distant sites. At this stage, it does not matter how large the primary cancer in the breast is. Nor does it matter whether axillary/clavicle/breast bone lymph nodes have cancer or not. The most common sites for metastasis for breast cancer are bone and liver, followed by lungs and brain. Standard testing include bone scan and CT scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis. More recently, PET scan is often done to look for cancer spread. Sometimes, a brain MRI or CT is also useful.

With very early detection, the breast cancer survival rate is excellent. The American Cancer Society reports a 5-year survival rate of 98% to 100% for Stage 1 breast cancer after treatment.

Stage 1 breast cancer is less than 2 centimeters in diameter and has not spread beyond the breast tissue itself.

Currently, 63% of breast cancer for U. S. white women is detected and diagnosed while it is still localized to the breast tissue as Stage 1 breast cancer. Only 53% of breast cancer in U. S. black women is diagnosed while the breast cancer is still localized.

The difference in early detection rates between white women and black women is usually attributed to economic disparity and the lack of health insurance. It also helps explain the fact that in the U. S., breast cancer incidence for black women is 11% lower than for white women, but the breast cancer death rate for black women is 35% higher (NCI, SEER, 2007). The death rate increases when breast cancer detection and diagnosis are postponed while the cancer spreads.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute predicts that approximately 178,480 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2007. The annual death rate from breast cancer is around 41,000 in the U.S. North American white women have the highest rate of breast cancer in the world.

Improving breast cancer survival rates by early detection requires regular observation, monthly self-examinations, and following medical recommendations for examinations and testing.

Monthly self-examinations should be done at the same time each month. Clinical examinations by a health care provider should start by the time a woman is 20 years old and continue at least every three years until age 40. After age 40, the clinical exams should be included in the annual health check-ups. Annual mammograms after age 40 will help detect breast cancer at the earliest stages.

Since 1 in every 8 women will face a diagnosis of breast cancer in their lives, improving the breast cancer survival rate should also include breast cancer prevention by reducing risk factors. Some breast cancer risk factors like genetics and family history can’t be changed, but they account for only a small percentage of breast cancer cases. Factors that have shown an increase in breast cancer include overweight, hormone therapy, and increased alcohol consumption. Factors that may help breast cancer prevention include breast feeding, maintaining a healthy weight, and regular exercise.

Breast cancer is a bad, sometimes frightening diagnosis at any time but a triple negative breast cancer diagnosis is particularly disturbing. Generally speaking, this cancer is defined in terms of a receptor which reveals specific genes. The three receptors are estrogen, progesterone and Her2.

The type of receptor determines the type of medicine prescribed for the patient to best attack the cancer. But if the diagnosis comes up negative for all three receptors, the medical response is more difficult. How can you attack a particular receptor if it doesn’t exist? Receptors help the cancerous cells to multiply and in order to best tackle them, a specific medicine is required.

But it is not all bad news because there are other drugs which can still be found to work. Finding the correct drug is the tricky task but once found, it can have a success rate which compares favorably with those using standard responses. Chemotherapy has been found to work successfully with triple negative breast cancer patients and the best medicine has thus far proved to be a combination of drugs. Because triple negative breast cancer is a relatively new discovery by doctors, a particular drug has yet to be announced. One line of treatment is to use drugs in chemotherapy which are not usually used for treatment in the early stages of breast cancer therapy.

Triple negative cancer does have certain characteristics. It is an aggressive cancer, it is found more in younger than older women, it is more likely to develop into metastatic breast cancer and is more likely to be found in women of African and Hispanic descent. This is interesting because, generally speaking, African American women have fewer incidents of cancer of any type than do white American women. Clinical trials are currently being carried out using patients with triple negative cancer. The future for better results is always hopeful. It needs to be understood that trials are not held over a few weeks or even months but rather years. One current trial is being run over a period of six years.

Recent studies indicate that of all breast cancers discovered, about 15% will be triple negative breast cancers. Taken as a whole, triple negative breast cancers have a high rate of secondary cancers or metastatic cancer and in many cases the additional tumor is found in the brain.

There are several unpleasant aspects to the triple negative cancer scenario – its high rate of recurrence, resistance to standard medicines in chemo, its aggressive nature and potential to become metastatic cancer. But there is a concerted effort by cancer specialists around the world to discover much more about this special type of breast cancer. Clinical trials are on-going, results are being shared and progress is being made. Women who have been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer are urged to join a support group particularly those online because it enables you to learn much from many. Hearing from those who have gone through what you are now experiencing can be stimulating and a real boost to your spirits.

Breast cancer ribbon tattoos have become a very popular way to show your support for those who have fought a cancer battle. While there are many different types of ribbons supporting many different causes, the pink ribbon is one that has taken on international significance representing breast cancer awareness.

With one in eight women and men fighting the breast cancer battle this year alone there is a good chance that you will know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. As a tattoo enthusiast, I love seeing people who have chosen to honor and support someone with a breast cancer ribbon tattoo.

If you are thinking about getting a breast cancer tattoo for yourself that honors someone who is fighting this particular battle or someone whose has fought this battle and ultimately lost ~ then here are some tattoo tips that you will want to keep in mind.

* Choosing the Right Breast Cancer Ribbon Tattoo Design.

Take your time choosing the perfect breast cancer tattoo. Not only do you want the tattoo to be the right one for you, but you’ll want it to properly symbolize your love and support for your friend or loved one. Looking through online designs is a good place to start. Having a stencil in hand of your chosen artwork when you go to your favorite tattoo artist can also save you some time and money.

* Location, Location, Location

Just as in real estate, the location of your tattoo is important, especially with this type of tattoo. Display it in a prominent location. After all… you want the world to see this beautiful work of art that shows your love and support for those with breast cancer.

* If This is Your First Tattoo?

If this is your first tattoo then you must Think… Think… and Re-Think Before You Ink! Take your time choosing a design. Take your time choosing the right placement location.

Don’t get a tattoo while under pressure from someone else. Hopefully, you will be living with this tattoo for the rest of your life so choose wisely from the start. You will want to be happy not only today but for all the tomorrows to come.

* Consultation Please!

It is a very good idea to make an appointment for a consultation with the artist. Actually, you should consult with several artists before making a final decision on just which artist will ink your tattoo. Take all your ideas, sketches and stenciled artwork with you to your appointment so together you and the artist can come up with the best custom tattoo design that is just right for you.

Getting a tattoo is somewhat of an intimate experience so you will want to be comfortable with the person who is going to be making art with you.

* Don’t Shop for Price Alone!

Tattooing is an art form and great tattoos can be expensive. If you decide to go smaller in order to save money, you may regret it later. Sometimes waiting until you can afford to get the right tattoo will be worth it in the long run. Your tattoo should be unique and special to you so don’t scrimp on it.

Deciding to get a breast cancer ribbon tattoo is commendable and offers a special tribute to your loved one or friend. Take your time choosing the best design and the right application location. Only then will it truly show honor and respect for those who fight the breast cancer battle.

Despite all the ‘noise’ about breast cancer being one of the worst killers of women in the world today, it is annoying that most women still do not take active steps towards protecting themselves from this dreaded condition. Although, the increasing prevalence of breast cancer and perhaps other cancerous conditions has been linked to environmental factors such as the increasing levels of radiation and chemicals released into the air, water, soil and food that we consume in the civilized world; or to genetic and hereditary factors, the role of other self imposed factors cannot be ignored.

There are a lot of things every woman can do individually or collectively, to prevent breast cancer. Poor lifestyle choices, such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise or ingestion or hormone mimicking medications, all play crucial roles in the cause of breast cancer and any attempt at preventing this disease should begin from here.

A simple positive and optimistic attitude has been shown to reduce the risk of cancer. This will sound amazing to many people; however, it will suffice to explain that several medical studies have demonstrated the link between a positive attitude and an improved immune system. Laughter and humor has been shown to enhance the body’s immunity and prevents against cancer and other diseases. You must have heard the slogan ‘happy people don’t fall sick’. Part of maintaining a positive attitude is learning to express your feelings. The mind is free and open and energy flows freely throughout the body when there are no accumulated pains and anxieties weighing you down.

Exercise is another tool that you will find very useful in your fight against breast cancer. Aerobic exercises, at least 3-4 times a week, constant breath work and deep body awareness (as in yoga meditation) are all effective in preventing breast cancer. Exercise has been shown to be very effective in maintaining a healthy body and mind. By exercising regularly, you will do yourself a great favour, because you will not only be preventing breast cancer, you will also be making it easier to maintain a sound mind and healthy body.

Eating healthy food is another great tool in preventing breast cancer. A great deal of cancers are caused by the chemicals and preservatives in the food we eat. Most genetically modified foods (GMO) i.e. food materials that were enhanced in the laboratory, are known to pose serious health dangers to consumers. Also, the hormone mimicking substances in contraceptive pills and other prescription pills could predispose you to cancerous growth. Thus, taking the right supplements could also be an effective tool in the fight against breast cancer.

Besides all these, self examination of the breast regularly is the number one means of detecting any changes in the breast. It is advisable to examine the breast at the same time every month; this will make it easier to spot any changes in the shape, color or texture of the breast. Common signs or changes to look out for are: lumps, thickening or knots anywhere in the breast, unusual swelling or warmth, change in size, color or texture such as reddening or darkening of the breast, itching or scaling especially on the nipple, sudden discharge, rashes, dimpling of the skin or unusual pain. Although, most of these changes might not be a sign of impending breast cancer, however, you never can tell. Forget all what you have heard, it is still possible to prevent breast cancer.