According to WHO statistics, more than a million cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year in the world. In our country, this figure is 50 thousand. Mortality from this disease is approximately 50%. The decrease in this indicator is hampered by the lack of organized preventive screening for the early detection of breast cancer.
Currently, breast cancer (BC) has more than 30 forms. The most common is nodular (multicentric and unicentric) and diffuse cancer (edematous-infiltrative and mastitis-like forms). A rarer form is Paget's disease. Let's see if a complete cure is possible with stage 2 breast cancer.
Reasons
The occurrence and development of this oncological disease is facilitated by the presence of certain factors. The vast majoritythe disease occurs in women, the development of malignant neoplasms in men is 100 times less common. Most often, breast cancer occurs in women over 35 years of age. A complicated gynecological history increases the risk of this type of malignant pathologies: inflammatory and hyperplastic diseases of the genital organs, menstrual disorders, lactation disorders, infertility. What are the causes of breast cancer? Pathology has a certain hereditary dependence: malignant tumors in close relatives, cancer-associated genodermatoses, milk-ovarian syndrome, a combination of breast cancer with sarcoma, oncological tumors of the lungs, adrenal glands of the larynx. Another factor in the development of the disease is metabolic and endocrine disorders: metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, arterial hypertension, pathologies of the pancreas, liver, immunodeficiency.
Non-specific carcinogenic factors can cause breast cancer: chemical poisons, smoking, an unbalanced high-calorie diet low in protein and rich in carbohydrates, lifestyle mismatch with biorhythms, ionizing radiation.
Classification by stages
Oncological pathologies of the breast are usually classified according to the stages of development:
- Breast cancer stage 1. A malignant tumor in diameter does not exceed 2 cm, does not affect the tissue surrounding the gland. No metastases.
- Breast cancer stage 2. It is divided into two subspecies. IIa stage is characterizedthe presence of a 2-5 cm tumor that has not yet grown into the fiber, or a smaller formation that has affected the surrounding tissues. Metastases at this stage of cancer, as a rule, are also absent. At stage II b, metastases develop in regional lymph nodes located in the armpits. Often there is metastasis to the parasternal intrathoracic lymph nodes.
- III stage also has two varieties. A stage IIIa tumor in diameter reaches more than 5 cm or grows into the layer of muscles located under the mammary gland. This often develops a sign of "lemon peel", nipple retraction, swelling, sometimes there are ulcerations on the skin and discharge from the nipple. Metastases are absent. At stage III b, multiple metastases occur in the axillary lymph nodes or single metastases in the subclavian and parasternal nodes.
- IV stage - terminal. The disease affects the entire gland, grows into neighboring tissues, disseminates to the skin, and manifests itself in the form of extensive ulcerations. This stage also includes tumors of any size that have metastasized to other organs, and neoplasms fixed to the chest.
Features of stage II oncology
Staging breast cancer is not always easy to determine. The disease is progressing. In medicine, it is believed that stage II is the initial stage in the development of the oncological process. This degree is most often characterized by a tumor size of no more than 5 cm with a predominant lesion of the axillary lymph nodes.
Oncology Symptoms IIstages are:
- presence of a seal in the chest;
- pain that is permanent, unreasonable;
- edema;
- breast deformity;
- skin flakes, becomes wrinkled, reddens or darkens, skin may feel hot to the touch;
- nipple shape changes;
- presence of nipple discharge;
- development of depressions on the mammary gland;
- increased size of the lymph nodes in the armpit, their soreness.
Stage 2 breast cancer is treated with surgery. For this, two variants of the operation can be used:
- Mastectomy - removal of the breast.
- A breast-sparing intervention in which the cancer itself is removed directly. Radiation therapy is mandatory after the operation.
Many people are concerned about the question - is it possible to completely cure stage II breast cancer? After surgery, the prognosis for recovery in most cases is favorable, but subject to the correctness of all ongoing therapeutic measures and constant monitoring of he alth in the future.
Common breast cancer symptoms
In the early stages, this oncological disease does not manifest itself in any way, however, on palpation, a dense formation can be easily detected in the tissues of the gland. In most cases, a woman notices it during self-examination, or it is determined during an ultrasound of the mammary glands, mammography, and otherdiagnostic measures during preventive visits to the doctor. Without appropriate therapy, the tumor grows, progresses, grows into the skin, subcutaneous tissue and muscles. Further, metastases develop that affect regional lymph nodes. With the blood flow, cancer cells are transferred to other tissues and organs. Breast cancer most often spreads metastases to the liver and brain. In advanced cases, necrotic disintegration of the formation occurs, and malignant damage to organs leads to death.
Diagnosis
The most important way to diagnose cancer early is a thorough and regular self-examination. This is especially true for women who are at risk - over the age of 35 years. Self-examination is recommended every month. Initially, it is necessary to examine the chest in front of a mirror. In this case, deformations are detected, an increase in the size of one of the mammary glands becomes noticeable. Probing the breast is also considered mandatory, through which discomfort, soreness and changes in the consistency of the gland can be noticed. Pressure should also be applied to the nipples in order to detect pathological secretions. If you have a lemon peel symptom, you should immediately contact a mammologist.
In the diagnosis of this disease, some instrumental diagnostic methods are used (ultrasound with dopplerography, mammography, thermography, ductography, breast MRI). They allow you to study the tumor in detail and evaluate it.size, shape, degree of damage to surrounding tissues.
An important diagnostic method is also a breast biopsy and further cytological examination of the tumor, which shows the presence of oncological growth. Among modern examination methods, radioisotope research, microwave RTS, and scintiomammography should also be noted.
Treatment
Breast cancer is highly treatable. Small tumors located in the breast tissues are removed, and cases of recurrence of removed non-metastasized cancer are most often not observed.
The treatment of the disease is surgical. The choice of the type of operation depends on the size of the oncological tumor, the degree of damage to the lymph nodes and surrounding tissues. Previously, almost all women diagnosed with a malignant tumor underwent a radical mastectomy (removal of the gland, as well as adjacent chest muscles and lymph nodes). Now more and more often a modified analogue of this operation is performed, when the chest muscles are preserved (if they are not affected by the pathological process).
With a small tumor in the treatment of stage 2 breast cancer, partial mastectomy is increasingly performed today: only the part of the gland affected by the tumor is removed with a small amount of surrounding tissue. This operation is usually performed at the same time as radiation therapy. It shows cure results comparable to radical mastectomy.
Effects of radiation therapy for cancermammary glands are not as sad as patients have programmed for themselves, especially older patients. The dose of ionizing radiation is not so great that hair will fall out, nausea will begin, or radiation sickness will appear. There is no such. There are side effects during irradiation of the mammary gland on the part of the general condition of the patient. They are manifested by severe fatigue, but by the end of the course of treatment, all the consequences disappear. And after a couple of months, all symptoms will disappear. Sometimes some patients may experience pain in the breast area.
Removal of lymph nodes helps to reduce the risk of recurrence of the oncological process. If metastases are found in the lymph nodes removed during the operation, the patients undergo a course of radiation therapy. Whether a complete cure is possible with stage 2 breast cancer is interesting to many patients.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy for breast cancer is one of the main methods of treatment. Sometimes it is used as the only method of influencing the tumor. The effectiveness of the therapeutic regimen depends on the type of cancer cells and the stage of the disease. Most often, this method is included in the scheme of complex therapy for breast cancer.
Chemotherapy for stage 2 breast cancer is a cytostatic effect on cancer cells. In this case, the drugs introduced into the body with blood are carried throughout the body and distributed throughout the tissues. This provides a systematic therapeutic effect, since the drugs act not only on the primary tumor focus, but also on distant disseminated metastases. As a result, growth is stifledcancer cells even in small, not yet diagnosed metastases.
Drugs
There are two main categories of chemotherapy drugs:
- With a cytostatic effect (suppress the processes of cell division and clonal proliferation, cause apoptosis of cells that have lost the ability to reproduce).
- With cytotoxic effects (disrupt the functioning of cell organelles and cause cell death, contribute to the development of tumor necrosis).
Oncology chemotherapy drugs can affect protein molecules that bind to nucleic acids or are responsible for cell formation. Some of them disrupt or slow down the processes of gene replication, others contribute to the formation of toxic free radicals or have an antimetabolic effect.
Each drug has a certain principle of action, which is the basis of the clinical classification of chemotherapy drugs. For breast cancer, certain treatment regimens may be prescribed, including an individually selected combination of different drugs.
Chemodrugs do not have selectivity of their influence, they negatively affect the vital activity of all body cells. However, antineoplastic cytostatics have a maximum effect only on actively dividing cells. So, is it possible to completely cure breast cancer stage 2? More on that later.
Prognosis for recovery
As statistics show, patients diagnosed with stage IIabreast cancer, recover in 87-93% of cases. With cancer II b, recovery is expected in 75-80% of cases.
In general, the prognosis for stage 2 breast cancer depends on the stage at which this cancer is diagnosed and how quickly treatment is started. With a locally advanced form of oncology, life expectancy is 5 years. For localized breast cancer, treatment success rates are around 92%.
Nutrition for oncology
Diet for breast cancer is aimed at weight loss, which should help prevent the recurrence of the cancer process, increase the chances of survival and improve the quality of life.
Women who have undergone radiation or chemotherapy tend to gain weight, and therefore it is not recommended to exceed the amount of food consumed, but to follow a special diet. Losing weight will reduce the risk of increased blood insulin, body fat and cancer symptoms.
The main principles of nutrition for breast cancer are:
- Compliance with the norms of caloric content of food, taking into account weight. The more body weight the patient has, the less high-calorie the diet should be.
- The amount of protein consumed per day is 20%, and the same amount is the amount of fat. The remaining 60% are foods with fiber: vegetables, fruits, cereals.
- Restricted consumption of smoked and fatty foods, red meat.
- Restricting refined carbohydrates, s alts and spices.
- Increased consumptionvitamins.
- Fragmented nutrition, frequent meals in small volumes.
- You should drink at least 2 liters of fluid per day.
- Meals must be fresh and steamed (or boiled).
Possible Complications
If an operation is not performed in a timely manner for stage 2 breast cancer, the disease suggests a tendency to rapid metastasis to individual tissues of the body, for example, to regional lymph nodes: subclavian, axillary, parasternal. Subsequently, with the flow of lymph, atypical cells spread to the scapular, supraclavicular, cervical and mediastinal lymph nodes.
In addition, tissues of the opposite side can be affected, that is, the oncological process can pass to the second breast. Hematogenous metastasis affects the liver, respiratory system, brain, bone tissue and, in the absence of adequate therapy, leads to death.
We found out whether a complete cure is possible with stage 2 breast cancer.
