When breast cancer develops the ability to spread to other organs in the body – most commonly the liver, lung, bone, soft tissues or brain – it’s called metastatic disease.
Breast Cancer
Four weeks after her 33rd birthday, Crystal found a lump in her breast. When she told a good friend and co-worker — whose mother happened to be in treatment for metastatic breast cancer — the friend told her, “Don’t mess around.”
Let’s face it: no cancer is a good cancer. But if you do get cancer, being diagnosed at Stage 0 might be considered a best-case scenario.
Historically, Japanese women were much less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than American women. However, as Western lifestyles become a part of everyday life in Japan, breast cancer rates are on the rise.
Years ago, breast cancer surgery usually meant mastectomy, the removal of the entire breast.
In recent months, many news outlets have featured stories about the rising rates of women with breast cancer choosing elective double mastectomies. The reasons why these patients opt for healthy breast removal are very personal, but Dr. Kazuaki Takabe and Dr. Jessica Young joined us on Facebook Live to discuss the medical considerations surrounding this trend.
Adult women, starting at age 20, are encouraged to perform a breast self-exam at least once a month. The key to a successful self-exam is consistency.
Prone breast radiation refers to an alternate way of positioning the patient, lying face down on a special board, instead of face up, to receive radiation to the breast.
You may have heard about a technology called 3D mammography. We get quite a few questions about it from patients in our Breast Center. It’s important to understand what 3D mammography is used for and who will benefit most from the technology.
Radioactive seed localization is a minimally invasive procedure performed before a lumpectomy to “mark” the tumor, that helps your surgeon locate the breast cancer and ensure its accurate removal, and is especially helpful when the tumor is too small for the surgeon to feel.
Lymphedema is an abnormal accumulation of protein-rich lymph fluid that typically occurs in the arm or leg, often the result of cancer treatments.
Following breast cancer removal by lumpectomy, whole breast irradiation is commonly required. We know that when breast cancer cells return after surgical removal, they often recur in the area where the tumor was removed.