The glands and ducts get bigger when a breast is filled with milk, but the tissue that is most responsible for the size and shape of the breast is adipose tissue. There are also blood and lymph vessels in the breast. Lymph is a clear liquid waste is drained out of the breast and lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small pieces of tissue about the size of a pea that filter and clean the lymph. Most lymph nodes that drain the breast are under the arm in what is called the axilla.
What is breast cancer? The collections of cells that are growing abnormally or without control are called tumors. Tumors that do not have the ability to spread through the body might refer to as "benign" and not intended to be cancerous. Tumors that have the ability to grow into other tissues or spread to distant parts of the body are referred to as "malignant." Malignant tumors in the breast are called "breast cancer".
Theoretically, any of the types of tissue in the breast can form a cancer, cancer cells are more likely to develop in the ducts or glands. These tumors may be referred to as "invasive ductal carcinoma" (cancer cells that develop in the ducts), or invasive lobular carcinoma "(cancer cells that develop lobes).
Sometimes, precancerous cells are found within the breast tissue, and are referred to as ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS, by its initials in English) or lobular carcinoma in-situ (LCIS, for their initials in English). DCIS and LCIS are diseases in which cancer cells are present within breast tissue, but can not spread or invade other tissues. DCIS represents about 20% of all breast cancers. Because DCIS cells may become capable of invading breast tissue, treatment is usually recommended for DCIS. In contrast, treatment for LCIS is usually not needed.
Am I at risk for breast cancer? - Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in North America and Europe. About 200,000 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the United States in 2001. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American women after lung cancer.
The risk in a lifetime of a woman getting breast cancer is about 1 in 8 though the risk of dying in a lifetime from breast cancer is much lower, 1 in 28. Men are also at risk for developing breast cancer, although the risk is much lower than for women. To help breast cancer research and development you can buy breast cancer awareness products. You can buy breast cancer support bags. If you are interested, you can purchase breast cancer support bags on ebags.com.