<p>Breast cancer is a type&nbsp;of&nbsp;cancer where cells in the breast tissue divide and grow without the normal control. Cancerous tumors in the breast usually grow very slowly so that by the time one is large enough to be felt as a lump, it may have been growing for as long as ten years.
</p><h2>Basic Breast&nbsp;Cancer Facts</h2>
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States. According to the Cancer statistics, it&#146;s estimated that 211,240 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the US in 2005, and 40,410 women will die from the disease. If you&#146;re worried about developing breast cancer, or if you know someone who has been diagnosed with the disease, one way to deal with your concerns is to get as much information as possible.

Please read&nbsp;some of the booklet&nbsp;from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nccn.com/images/patient-guidelines/pdf/breast.pdf">FIRST</a>; &nbsp;you&#146;ll be glad you did! (Scroll through it&nbsp;and start at page 7.)

About 80 percent&nbsp;of&nbsp;breast cancers originate in the mammary ducts, while about 20 percent arise in the lobules. (Lobules &#150; Spherical-shaped sacs in the breast that produce milk.) Look at the reliable links section&nbsp;below&nbsp;to start your education.

SAVE LIVES WITH A MAMMOGRAM!!!

Help us fund free or low cost mammograms to catch Breast Cancer in its earliest stages. Click on the donate now button above and in the comments section indicate that the&nbsp;funds&nbsp;are&nbsp;for mammograms.
<ul>
	<li>&nbsp;<strong>Info on&nbsp;<a title="Powered by Text-Enhance" href="http://www.nccn.com/type-of-cancer/breast-cancer/166.html">Inflammatory Breast Cancer</a>&nbsp;(IBC) </strong>Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare, but deadly disease. Doctors say it is&nbsp;often difficult to diagnose because the symptoms&nbsp;are&nbsp;quite different from typical breast cancer. Please watch this informational video. It is a silent Killer!&nbsp; Additionally&nbsp;there&nbsp;is a new IBC organization that has some useful info. Here is the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eraseibc.com/ibc.html">Link for the IBC Foundation</a>. The New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research has a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.state.nj.us/health/ccr/documents/ibc_newsletter.pdf">special research report</a>&nbsp;dated Spring 2008 that is also very informative despite the 2008 date.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
	<li><strong><strong>PARP Inhibitors
</strong></strong>This recent news affects those with heriditary cancer.PARP inhibitors may be especially helpful for patients with hereditary breast cancer. People who have&nbsp;BRCA1&nbsp;and&nbsp;BRCA2&nbsp;genetic mutations&nbsp;are&nbsp;at very high risk for developing breast cancer. Healthy BRCA genes can suppress tumor formation, but mutated BRCA genes&nbsp;are&nbsp;powerless against cancer cells. PARP inhibitors may exploit the weakness inherent in cancer cells with mutated BRCA. One possible use for PARP inhibitors may be prevention&nbsp;of&nbsp;hereditary breast cancer. Perhaps PARP inhibitors will become a&nbsp;<em>preventative treatment</em>&nbsp;for high-risk women and would make prophylactic mastectomies obsolete. If a PARP inhibitor is&nbsp;<em>added</em>&nbsp;to chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer, researchers hope cancer cells that have resisted anticancer drugs will be become vulnerable to fatal DNA damage. In some cases, a PARP inhibitor may be used&nbsp;<em>alone</em>, rather than in conjunction with chemo and radiation. Even better news is that PARP inhibitors do not appear to affect normal, non-cancerous cells. That means fewer side effects for patients and faster recovery from treatments.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Newly Diagnosed? Start your education here.</h2>
Vital to helping you understand your condition and manage your care&nbsp;is keeping track&nbsp;of&nbsp;important phone numbers, treatment history, side effects, and laboratory results, such as your complete&nbsp;blood count&nbsp;(CBC). Use these tools to help organize this information so you can be an active participant in your cancer care. Keep them handy for use at home and bring them along to your doctor visits and other medical appointments.
<ol>
	<li>Important Contacts</li>
	<li>Health and treatment history</li>
	<li>Copies&nbsp;of&nbsp;reports &#150; Blood tests, Pathology reports, etc</li>
	<li>Calendar</li>
	<li>Progress</li>
	<li>Questions</li>
	<li>Insurance</li>
</ol>
<h2>Understanding Cancer &#150; An Introduction</h2>
The word cancer refers to changes in the body&#146;s cells that cause them to grow out&nbsp;of&nbsp;control. These cells can grow very fast and spread, eventually crowding out normal cells and damaging entire systems&nbsp;of&nbsp;the body.
<h2>Reliable Links and Resources</h2>
<strong>National Comprehensive Cancer Network&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong><strong><a href="http://www.nccn.com">www.nccn.com</a></strong>

<strong><em>Read this First!</em></strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nccn.com/images/patient-guidelines/pdf/breast.pdf">This link</a>&nbsp;is a &#145;goldmine&#146;&nbsp;of&nbsp;great information. It is a PDF file with nearly everything you need to know about breast Cancer. It is well organized and answers the many questions that any patient would have after getting a Cancer Diagnosis. If you have been told that&nbsp;there&nbsp;may be an abnormality in your last mammogram and you need to get a diagnostic mammo, this is a great place to find info and understand the next decisions and discussions. It&#146;s a long file (about 100 pages) but you&#146;ll find it easy to navigate and get at the answers quickly. You&#146;ll probably want to skip to page 7 to start reading.

<a href="http://www.breastcancer.org" target="_blank"><strong>www.breastcancer.org</strong></a>

<em>What you can find here:</em>

One&nbsp;of&nbsp;the many Breast Cancer information sites. Information is updated regularly and the site is somewhat easy to navigate once you find the best place to start. The best way to navigate the site is to start with the section labeled&nbsp;Symptoms and Diagnosis&nbsp;- then go through the information item by item until you find what you&nbsp;are&nbsp;looking for. They provide information on treatment, support groups, current research and some very basic terms and descriptions. Some&nbsp;of&nbsp;the online booklets can also be quite helpful.

<a href="http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_4X_Treatment_by_Stage_Breast_Cancer_5.asp?rnav=cri" target="_blank"><strong>Breast Cancer Treatment by Stage</strong></a>

<em>What you can find here:</em>

One&nbsp;of&nbsp;the many general Cancer information sites. Information is updated regularly and dated.&nbsp;There&nbsp;is a very high level overview&nbsp;of&nbsp;each stage. The site requires you to click on many links to get at specific data.

The&nbsp;<strong>CDC (Centers for Disease Control)</strong>&nbsp;has reliable information to get you started with your understanding&nbsp;of&nbsp;treatment options for Breast Cancer.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/basic_info/treatment.htm">Click here</a>&nbsp;for a link.

Also on this site is a very useful link to the National Cancer Institutes Treatment Option Overview.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/breast/Patient/page5/">Click here</a>&nbsp;to go directly to the page.

<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/basic_info/symptoms.htm">Breast Cancer Symptoms</a>

<a href="http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping">General Information in Coping with Cancer</a>