First the figures... Out of every nine women, one gets breast cancer during her life. Women above 50 years of age account for almost 80 per cent of the total breast cancer patients.

- Types of Breast Cancer:

Basically, there are three types of breast cancer:

• Ductal carcinoma in situ - This is the initial stage in which cancerous cells are present in milk ducts. Since this is the initial stage, it can be cured easily. Mammograms can detect this type of cancer.
• Invasive ductal carcinoma - This means cancer has spread from milk ducts to other parts of the breast.
• Invasive lobular carcinoma - This means cancer has spread from milk lobules to other parts of thereast. One can face difficulty in diagnosing it as mammograms cannot detect it and lumps are not always formed.

- Risk Factor:
Obese and alcoholic women are more at risk of getting breast cancer. Besides, women taking contraceptive pills and who had undergone hormone replacement therapy too have increased chances of afflicting with breast cancer. Here too, hereditary factor plays a key role. You too are at risk of developing breast cancer if someone in your family has had it.

- Diagnosis:
Mammography can detect cancerous cells even if they are very small and are at initial stage. That is the reason doctors advise all women above 40 years of age to go through mammography annually. Women who undergo regular mammography will be diagnosed early and completely cured of the disease than those who don’t take part in screening. Women can also massage their breasts to feel for any lumps in their breasts. The size and shape of the breast could change or you could even feel a lump in underarms.

But being totally dependent of self-check could be dangerous as you could only feel lumps if they are big in size. If the cancer is in initial stage you wouldn't be able to detect that so it’s better to get mammography done every once in a while. Biopsy can be done to diagnose breast cancer. In this, needle is inserted in breasts to take out sample of tissue to know whether the cells are cancerous. Doctors examine the tissue under microscope for results.

- Treatment:
Breast cancer can be treated through surgery. In case of detection at initial stage, the lump and area surrounding it is removed through surgery. If detected late, more tissues are removed.

Generally, surgery is followed by radiotherapy or Chemotherapy. The tumor type and its magnitude decides whether it would be radiation therapy or chemotherapy. In most cases, hormone therapy is given to lower risk of the cancer recurring.