Breast Cancer: A Case Study

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Canadian women, with the majority of these deaths resulting from metastasis of cancer to other tissues. In 2015, an estimated 25,000 Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,000 will suffer from cancer-related deaths. When breast cancer is isolated to the breast tissue, cure rates surpass 90%; nonetheless, as cancer cells settle into the adjacent or distant tissues, long-term survival is markedly declined. The spread of cancer cells to secondary sites, resulting in disruption of normal tissue function is the major cause of fatality and the main impediment to improving prognosis in breast cancer patients. Given that the exact mechanisms and etiologies resulting in development of breast cancer are not …show more content…
Abnormal proliferation advances through phases during which the epithelium becomes increasingly proliferative, without acquiring atypical characteristics (proliferative disease without atypia). Atypical hyperplasia can manifest as either ductal or lobular forms, before it advances into DCIS or LCIS. These abnormal epithelial cells remain confined to the primary site of origin until they attain additional genetic alterations that enable them to evade anti-growth and anti-apoptotic cues and thus continue to proliferate in