Breast Cancer

8 Pages 2032 Words

BREAST CANCER;
WHY WOMEN SHOULD BE AWARE
In the United States this year 180,200 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and 43,900 women will die from the disease (Glazer 555). “Breast cancer affects more American women than any other type of cancer” (All 1). Breast cancer is one of the top three cancers of all women above the age of 15; therefore, women need to commit themselves and watch for signs of cancer, or we will always have a problem with this life-threatening disease.
Breast cancer needs to be explained before you can fully understand the disease.
Breast cancer is a group of cells that have proliferated outside the framework of the normal growth pattern. Normally, healthy cells interact together in a coordinated fashion t o assemble themselves into tissues and organs. Thought the lifetime of an organism, healthy cells live for a time, die and are replaced by new healthy cells according to instructions from the DNA, which is comprised of thousands of genes and is located in the nucleus of all cells. If the gene or genes responsible for forming particular cells is damaged or faulty in some way, then the incredibly precise process of cell growth and division spins out of control and cancer cells arise instead of healthy ones. As these cells rapidly proliferate, they pay little attention to the healthy cells. In this way the cancer cells form tumors. (Davies 26)
Hereditary breast cancer can only account for five percent of breast cancer cases (Glazer 570). Well known risk factors include family history of cancer, DNA, high levels of estrogen, having an abortion, and diet.
At the most basic level, scientists agree that breast cancer is a genetic disease. Recently genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been thought as a cause of cancer. The genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been heavily researched and are now linked with the breast cancer disease. A defect in either the BRCA1 gene or the BRCA2 gene presents the development of breast ...