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Chapter 3


What Is Cancer? Healthy cells are the basic building blocks of all tissue and organs in the body. But when cell DNA (the cell’s wiring) is damaged, mutated cells begin to rapidly reproduce without following the pre-wired plan.


Aggressive cell growth can form a tumor (mass of tissue) that, like each individual cell, does not function as originally intended. These abnormal cells or groups of cells can progress into cancer.


Cancer Origins Breast cancer usually begins either where the milk is produced, the lobules, or in the milk ducts.


Prognosis Treating breast cancer as soon as it’s discovered is very important. If left untreated, the cancer cells may invade healthy breast tissue or lymph nodes. Once in the lymph system, cancer can spread more easily to other parts of the body.


Growth of Cancer The growth and spread of cancer can be difficult to grasp because cancer cell growth is fueled by usually healthy chemicals of the body. Medical professionals usually illustrate these chemicals with complex diagrams and scientific formulae. We’ll simplify the chemicals in this chapter, show- ing circles are estrogen, squares are progester- one, and triangles are the HER2/neu gene. These three bodily chemicals can stimulate the growth of breast cancer tumors.


Types of Tumors A tumor is a mass of abnormal tissue. There are two types of tumors: those that are noncancer- ous, or ‘benign,’ and those that are cancerous, which are ‘malignant.’


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