The causes of breast cancer and its prevention are probably the two major questions of every woman who are concerned about the disease. There are many myths surrounding this disease that are mistaken for facts. Some people believe that it cannot be prevented, and others believe that we cannot detect it through self examination. Those mistaken beliefs lead to confusion and even worsen the condition of the person suffering from breast cancer. To prevent it from occurring in the first place, we must know the causes and the risk factors. Gender and age are the two biggest risk factors. This type of cancer is more common in women over 50 years of age (around 65-70% of all cases). Race also plays a significant role; in the US, white women have a greater risk to develop the cancer than African American women.

If a woman has a history of cancer in one breast, the likelihood for the cancer to develop in other breast is increased by three to four times. Women who have a family history of breast cancer are also at greater risk. You should also be aware of any genetic changes and mutations that are passed along in your family. The disease is linked to the abnormal genes BRCA 1 and BRCA 2. Thus, women who inherit those abnormal genes, especially BRCA 1, should be more aware since they tend to develop the cancer at early age. Additionally, they are also at higher risk to develop ovarian cancer.

Hormonal factors also play a major role, too. Women whose period starts at early age (such as 11 years old or younger) and women who experience late menopause (such as 55 years old and older), are more likely to develop the cancer. Women who give birth before the age of 30 may be protected from breast cancer. On the contrary, women who never give birth at all are at higher risk.Besides child-bearing, breastfeeding is an important factor as well. Mothers who breastfeed their infants are less susceptible to cancer than those who do not.

Other lethal diseases such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke are often linked to poor lifestyle and dietary habits. Breast cancer is not an exception. Women who consume alcohol regularly are at higher risk, depending on the amount consumed. On the other hand, it is believed that regular exercise may reduce the risk, although there is no definitive guide on how much exercise one should do. The risk is also higher in women who receive radiation therapy in the upper body to treat particular diseases before the age of 30, and those who are overweight.

Understanding the causes of breast cancer is very critical. It can help women to prevent the disease from ever happening. Do not let breast cancer take your whole life.

By David Dodiros

There are four stages of breast cancer, from stage 1 to stage 4. In stage 1, the cancer is least severe and the chance of recovery is still high. However, at stage 4, the malignant tumor has spread to other parts of the body (such as the lungs, skin, bones, liver, brain, or distant lymph nodes) and is very difficult to cure. Thus, this stage is also known as advanced or metastatic stage. The cancer might be already at the advanced stage when it is first discovered, but it can also be a reappearance of previous breast cancer that has already affected other parts of the body. It is a very serious condition and requires focused treatments. Stage 4 breast cancer prognosis involves the prediction of outcome and the chance of survival that are based on other patients' experiences. Here are the prognosis factors of a stage 4 breast cancer:

1. The first factor is the survival tendency. As a matter of a fact, the five-year survival rate for patients suffering from metastatic breast cancer is only 20 percent. Thus, the aim of the treatment is a long term survival of the patient, since the cancer at this stage is incurable.

2. Hormonal factors also play an important role. Estrogen and progesterone that can be found in birth control medications or hormone replacement therapy can actually cause the cancerous cells to grow. A hormone receptor status test will show whether or not any of these hormones are causing the growth of the malignant tumor. If the patient is estrogen receptor positive (ER+) or progesterone receptor positive (PR+), the cancer should respond well to hormone suppression treatments. Moreover, the three-year survival rate for ER+/PR+ patients reaches 97 percent while the survival rate for ER-/PR- patients is only 83 percent.

3. Histology is another important factor since it determines the degree of aggressiveness of the disease by identifying the types of cancer cells found in the tumor. For instance, the type of breast cancer known as tubular adenocarcinoma is considered as the most survivable. On the other hand, inflammatory breast cancer is very aggressive and the five-year survival rate for stage 4 is only about 11 percent.

4. Other factors that affect the stage 4 breast cancer prognosis and survival rates are the areas in which the cancer has spread, the size of the tumor, age and race factor, genetic history, response to treatment such as chemotherapy, biological therapy, clinical trials, medications, radiation therapy and surgery.

Figuring out stage 4 breast cancer prognosis is crucial. It can help finding out the chance of survival of the patient and the treatment required.

By Andy Mahesa

If you want to know the latest prostate cancer news you will have to use the Internet to get this information. Although the Web may be a difficult place at times to locate specific information, there are ways to get the latest prostate cancer treatment news right from your computer. I thought of giving you some of the prostate cancer news but it would be yesterday's news so to speak and be of little value as time wore on. Instead, here are a few ideas on finding the latest prostate cancer treatment news yourself anytime you want to.

To get started you will need to visit one of the larger search engines, like MSN, Yahoo.com, or Google and will begin a search for news specific information. Although you may have use a search engine to find things on the Web, many search engines also have an option to look for news. By selecting news, you're limiting your search to only those sites that have the latest information you may be looking for.

So once on the search engine home page and after selecting a news type search, you're ready to begin locating your prostate cancer treatment information. After doing that, then type in the information in the space provided. To refine our search to get the latest news on prostate cancer treatments, you would enter the following into the box "prostate cancer" + "new treatment " then hit enter.

Be certain to use the quotes are you will get a lot more news that isn't nearly as targeted as our interest is only in new treatments for prostate cancer. Without the quotes, we may get information on all types of cancer and all treatments, no matter new. The quote marks are important, so that the search engine will know that you want new treatments concerning prostate cancer.

The + between the prostate cancer in new treatment phrases tells your computer system to bring you news that has "prostate cancer" AND "new treatment" in the article. This is the absolutely best way to find prostate cancer news on the Internet.

Another option is to manually review popular news sites such as www.healthfinder.gov and health.yahoo.com/.

If you want your news on any new treatments for prostate cancer to be delivered to your system automatically, consider using a news aggregator and RSS feed. This bit of technology can provide regular updates on any new prostate cancer treatment that's mentioned in the news or health journals and deliver about information write to your desktop.

Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia has a with of news aggregators available for your use at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/List_of_news_aggregators.

There are of course the old media and methods of staying updated about new treatment options. Of course, this means reviewing newspapers, magazines and journals manually. The good news once again however, is that a news aggregator can do this review of all online editions of these resources

So, although you may think the Web is nothing more than advertisements and spam e-mail, you will find that its search capabilities can provide a fantastic array of useful information on any subject, including new prostate cancer treatments and advancements.

Here's the one fact that all men need to understand:
Early prostate cancer detection is the difference between living and dying as far as prostate cancer is concerned.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that cancer is one of the leading causes of death. What you may not have realized is that cancer is the second leading cause of death for men and prostate cancer is a very major contributor.

The reason for this is that prostate cancer can expand beyond the prostate gland and travel to other parts of the body. So a highly treatable cancer in the prostate is ignored and kill it grows into other parts of the body and becomes much more deadly.

The sad part is that doctors are able to detect prostate cancer in its very early stages. To complicate matters however, there are a few symptoms that are directly associated with prostate cancer alone. This in turn causes many men to simply ignore common symptoms until prostate cancer grows beyond the gland and becomes a seriously life threatening cancer.

The good news is that this disease is a slow progressive type of cancer while still localized in the prostate. A person can have prostate cancer for years and not know it if they don't undergo several very simple diagnostic tests. Men with no family history of prostate cancer should be tested yearly. Black men and those with a family member who has had prostate cancer should consider annual testing at age 40.

Prostate cancer screening tests are simple and inexpensive.
+ Digital Rectal Examination
+ PSA Blood test. Measures levels of Prostate-Specific Antigen a key prostate cancer marker.

Your chance of survival and cure is directly related to early detection, diagnosis and treatment. Consistent testing will dramatically increase the chances of early detection before it becomes serious.

Another benefit of early detection is that the treatment options are much less radical. Earlier treatment methods are much more successful in not only curing prostate cancer but also limiting the complications and side effects of more aggressive treatment options.

If you haven't been insisting on a prostate exam and blood test for prostate cancer indicators, you owe it to yourself and your family to start now. Prostate cancer is a serious illness that needs to be identified as soon as possible.

So at your next annual physical, make certain that basic prostate cancer screening tests are done.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women affecting one in eight women during their lives. It may develop at any time but the risk of developing it increases as women get older.

CAUSE
The cause of breast cancer is not known and while it can also occur in men, the much higher occurrence in women implicates estrogen. Today, breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, is considered to be the final outcome of multiple environmental and hereditary factors.

Breathing secondhand smoke increases breast cancer risk by 70% in younger, primarily pre-menopausal women. A newly released study indicates a correlation between the drop in breast cancer and the drop in women taking HRT.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
Breast cancer elicits so many fears, including those relating to surgery, death, loss of body image and loss of sexuality, however it is more easily treated and often curable if it is found early, therefore regular self examination and screening is essential. Breast cancer usually shows as a lump or thickening in the breast tissue, although most breast lumps are not cancerous.

Certain predisposing factors are clear.
Women at high risk are those who:
Have a family history of breast cancer.
Have long menstrual cycles, began menses early or menopause late.
Have never been pregnant
Were first pregnant after age 31.
Have had unilateral breast cancer.
Have endometrial or ovarian cancer.
Were exposed to low level ionizing radiation.
Many other possible factors are still under investigation including, obesity, alcohol and environmental factors.

Those with lower risk include women who:
Were pregnant before age 20.
Are Native American or Asian.

Breast cancer occurs more often in the left breast and in the upper quadrant.
Indications of breast cancer other than a lump may include changes in breast size or shape, skin dimpling, nipple inversion, or spontaneous single-nipple discharge.

TYPES
When breast cancer cells invade the dermal lymphatic’s, small lymph vessels in the skin of the breast, its presentation can resemble skin inflammation and thus is known as inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). Symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer include pain, swelling, warmth and redness throughout the breast, as well as an orange peel texture to the skin referred to as pea d'orange.

The most common pathologic types of breast cancer are invasive ductal carcinoma, malignant cancer in the breast's ducts, and invasive lobular carcinoma, malignant cancer in the breast's lobules.

Occasionally, breast cancer presents as metastatic disease, that is, cancer that has spread beyond the original organ. Bone or joint pains can sometimes be manifestations of metastatic breast cancer, as can jaundice or neurological symptoms.

TREATMENT
Much controversy still exists over treatment of breast cancer, options include; Surgery, chemotherapy, Radiotherapy, Hormonal therapies, Herceptin and complementary treatments.

The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized, with possible adjuvant hormonal therapy (with tamoxifen or an aromatize inhibitor), chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy.

In February 2007, the Mamma Print test became the first breast cancer predictor to win formal approval from the Food and Drug Administration. This is a new gene test to help predict whether women with early-stage breast cancer will relapse in 5 or 10 years, this could help influence how aggressively the initial tumor is treated.

PREVENTION
Routine (annual) mammography of women older than age 40 or 50 is recommended by numerous organizations as a screening method to diagnose early breast cancer and has demonstrated a protective effect in multiple clinical trials. Women with one or more first-degree relatives (mother, sister, and daughter) with premenopausal breast cancer should begin screening at an earlier age.

PROGNOSIS
There are many prognostic factors associated with breast cancer: staging, tumor size and location, grade, whether disease is systemic (has metastasized, or traveled to other parts of the body), recurrence of the disease, and age of patient.

With advances in screening, diagnosis, and treatment, the death rate for breast cancer has declined by about 20% over the past decade, and research is ongoing to develop even more effective screening and treatment programs.

Breast Cancer Symptoms
Breast cancer symptoms can be experienced by men as well as women but breast cancer is very rare in men compared to women. More than 1 in 10 women are likely to suffer from breast cancer symptoms, and be diagnosed with breast cancer, in a lifetime. Breast cancer symptoms can be detected when a lump, tumor, or cyst grows large enough to either be felt or seen on a mammogram. Breast cancer symptoms don’t often manifest themselves until the cancer is already in its later stages of growth, and may have already metastasized to other more vital areas of the body. Breast cancer symptoms are often subtle, and self discovery can be elusive. Due to the high incidence of breast cancer among older women, screening is now recommended in many countries.

Lumps or masses in the breast are not unusual, and most of them are not cancerous. Some breast masses can be felt during a breast exam. Lump may form in the breast, chest or under the arm if the cancer is in the breast or near the chest wall. You will also notice a change in the size, shape and skin of the breast.

Earlier the diagnosis of breast cancer always involved the removal of the breast and the surrounding skin, muscles underneath the breast and the lymph nodes underneath the arm. Today’s method of diagnosis is well advanced without the above mentioned procedure radical mastectomy.

Among young women, a lump that moves may be a sign of fibrocystic breast disease. Generally, breast cancer is a much more aggressive disease in younger women. Generally a lump that is cancerous will not be tender to the touch, it will be hard, non-movable, and not change rapidly in size (within several days or weeks). If a lump is tender, it could be a cyst or a swollen lymph node. Genetic counseling and genetic testing should be considered for families who may carry a hereditary form of cancer.

Inflammatory breast cancer is an uncommon type of breast cancer, which includes the breast being warm, red, and swollen. The inflammation occurs because the cancer cells block the lymphatic vessels in the skin of the breast. Breast cancer is a common disease. Each year, approximately 200,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer, and one in nine American women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Breast cancer occurs much more commonly in women and less than 1 in 100 of breast cancers occur in men. In the UK, approximately 250 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Breast cancer starts in the cells of the breast. The breast tissue covers an area larger than just the breast.

Women with one of these defects have up to an 80% chance of getting breast cancer sometime during their life. Women who attend Infinite Boundaries retreats are in all stages of breast cancer.

The more you drink, the greater your risk
Women had limited knowledge of their relative risk of developing breast cancer, of associated risk factors and of the diversity of potential breast cancer-related symptoms. Older women were particularly poor at identifying symptoms of breast cancer, risk factors associated with breast cancer and their personal risk of developing the disease. Women, sometimes, have lumps in their breasts which have been there for a lifetime. They’re usually harmless fibroids, and never conclusively mean you’ve developed breast cancer. Women are very conscious about their breast care. Beautiful and healthy breast are one of the most cherished dream of women.