What Does It Mean to Have Breast Cancer?

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Hearing you have breast cancer can be anything from confusing to shocking and anywhere in between. It brings up many questions like: What does it mean I have breast cancer? Can breast cancer be cured? What treatments do I need?

Because there is so much information to understand, we break down some of the basics of breast cancer, risk factors for breast cancer, types of breast cancer, as well as possible treatments.

What Is the Meaning of Breast Cancer?

Breast cancer happens when cells within the breasts grow out of control and develop the potential to invade nearby tissue.  It most often develops in one breast but rarely involves both breasts.

Cancer cells can form lumps called tumors. A lump in your breast doesn’t necessarily mean you have cancer. Many lumps are benign (noncancerous).

Aside from skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, affecting 1 in 8 women in their lifetime.  Men can also get breast cancer but this is rare.  It is most often diagnosed in women after the age of 50, however can affect younger women as well.

What Causes Breast Cancer?

Doctors don’t always know what causes breast cancer. Having certain risk factors means that you’re more likely to get it. But sometimes, people with no known risk factors get breast cancer.

Risk factors for breast cancer include:

• Being over 50.
• Being overweight or obese.
• Drinking too much alcohol.
• A family history of breast or ovarian cancer.
• Giving birth for the first time after 30.
• Going through menopause after 55.
• Having dense breast tissue.
• Not breastfeeding your babies.
• Smoking.
• Starting your period before age 12.
• Taking hormone therapy.
• Using hormonal contraceptives within the past 10 years.

Most women who develop breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors other than being female and getting older. Whether you have risk factors for breast cancer or not, it’s important to get screened. Regular checkups and mammograms are the best way to catch breast cancer early.

Types of Breast Cancer

There are many kinds of breast cancer. If you’ve recently gotten diagnosed with breast cancer, the labels can feel confusing.

The specific cells in the breast that become cancerous determine what type of breast cancer you have. But in general, cancer is:

• In situ — Starts in a milk duct and hasn’t grown into the rest of the breast tissue.
• Invasive — Has spread to the surrounding breast tissue.

Stages of Breast Cancer

When doctors diagnose you with breast cancer, they’ll try to figure out if it’s spread beyond the breast. If it has, they’ll want to know how far and where. Doctors call this process staging.

Breast cancer stages range from 0 to 4. The higher the number, the more the cancer has spread. To determine what stage of cancer you have, doctors take into consideration:

• Spread of cancer.
• Tumor size.
• Whether the lymph nodes have become involved.

What does Stage 4 breast cancer mean?

Stage 4 breast cancer is also known as metastatic breast cancer. Metastatic means that advanced cancer has spread to other organs. Most women who have Stage 4 breast cancer had an earlier stage of breast cancer.

Breast cancer can spread to many organs, but the typical places for it to spread are:

• Bones
• Brain (rarely)
• Liver
• Lungs
• Lymph nodes

Even if the cancer has spread to other organs, doctors still call it breast cancer. Cancers get named for the organ where they start.

What does triple-negative breast cancer mean?

Triple-negative breast cancer is a specific type of cancer. But you may wonder what triple-negative actually means for breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive, invasive cancer. It grows and spreads faster and has fewer treatment options than other breast cancers.

The “triple” in the name refers to the lack of three proteins, called receptors, on the cancer cells. The cells don’t have estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, or the HER2 protein. These three receptors typically fuel other types of breast cancer growth.

Triple-negative breast cancers account for about 10% to 15% of all breast cancers. It’s more common in women under 40, Black and Hispanic women, and women who have a specific gene mutation.

Can Breast Cancer Be Cured?

Doctors can cure some breast cancers. In general, there’s a better chance of curing breast cancer when it’s caught early. Breast cancer treatments include:

• Chemotherapy
• Hormone therapy
• Immunotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Surgery

Is there a cure for triple-negative breast cancer?

Curing triple-negative breast cancer is more likely if it hasn’t spread. When doctors catch it early and treat it aggressively, there’s a much better chance of a cure.

But triple-negative breast cancer doesn’t have as many treatment options as other breast cancers. Hormone therapy and drugs that target estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and HER2 protein don’t work on this type of cancer.

Doctors will typically use chemotherapy to shrink these large tumors, followed by surgery to remove the tumor. You might need more chemotherapy or radiation after surgery to lessen the chances of the tumor coming back.

Is there a cure for Stage 4 breast cancer?

There’s no cure for Stage 4 breast cancer. But that doesn’t mean it’s an immediate death sentence, either.

With earlier stages of breast cancer, the goal is a cure. You finish treatment hoping your cancer is behind you and you can get back to your normal life.

But with Stage 4 breast cancer, the goal is keeping the cancer at bay instead of finding a cure. Doctors will manage the disease as a chronic illness and work to extend your life as much as possible.

This means you’ll have cancer treatments for the rest of your life. But with current cancer medicines, you may not look very ill, and you may not have hair loss or weight loss. Some people may not even realize you’re sick.

With advances in medicine and research, more women live years and even decades with Stage 4 breast cancer.

Early Detection Saves Lives

With improved screening methods such as 3-D mammography, high-resolution ultrasound, and breast MRI, most breast cancers today are identified in early stages when cure rates are highest.  This shows the importance of early detection through routine breast imaging and clinical exams.

Current recommendations from the American Cancer Society and other organizations advise that women begin screening mammograms at the age of 40 and continue routinely every 1-2 years.  Women identified as high risk may need to begin screening much earlier and should talk to their health care providers about recommendations for their particular screening plan.

Women should also be vigilant in adopting a lifestyle that includes a healthy diet, regular exercise, and maintaining an ideal weight.