Breast/Ovarian Cancer Basics

Breast & Ovarian Cancer Basics Bright Pink does not provide medical advice. Please check out our Disclaimer for more information

Cancer 101
Mutations Break Our Cells’ Traffic Lights
Breast Cancer Basics
Ovarian Cancer Overview

Cancer 101
Billions of tiny cells make up your body, dividing and growing throughout your life and replacing cells that wear out or are injured. When cells divide normally, they follow the genetic instructions on their genes, which tell them what to do, when to grow, when to divide to make more cells or even when to stop growing and die. Sometimes this natural process breaks down. The genes get damaged and the cells may no longer understand their instructions. Instead of following orders, the cells begin to grow out of control. Left unchecked, this wild cell growth leads to cancer.

Mutations Break Our Cells’ Traffic Lights
When a gene is damaged, we call it a mutation. When mutations occur in certain genes, cells don’t die when they should and new cells form when we don’t need them. In some ways, genes are like stoplights within our cells. They keep traffic flowing – cells dividing, growing and dying – in a regulated manner. But when that stoplight breaks, there’s nothing to tell the traffic to stop. On the road, we end up with traffic jams, accidents and other unpredictable, dangerous situations. On the cellular level, the equivalent is a cancer tumor – a group of your own cells that have divided out of control.

Breast Cancer Basics
Simply put, breast cancer is when uncontrolled cell growth creates a tumor in the breast. We’ll bet you’re pretty familiar with breast cancer. You’ve probably worn pink to support breast cancer awareness. And it’s likely you’ve even known someone who has had it – that’s because all women have a 1 in 8 lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. Stats like these make it important to keep learning and talking about early detection and prevention. So let’s dig into a few things you may not know about breast cancer:

While it occurs most often in women, men can also develop breast cancer.
Breast cancer is one of the leading cancer diagnoses in women and is the leading cause of cancer death in women ages 15 to 54.
About 10% of breast and ovarian cancer diagnoses are considered hereditary.¹
There are currently over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the US.²
On the downside, it’s estimated that breast cancer will claim the lives of 40,230 people in the US in 2010 – that’s 390 men and 39,840 women.³
But on the upside, when detected and treated early, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

Ovarian Cancer Overview
You may know less about ovarian cancer than you do about breast cancer because it’s far less common. But ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecological cancer in women and it’s often called "the silent killer" because its symptoms can be very difficult to detect. That’s why it’s important for all of us to learn more about it. The good news is that knowing the symptoms of ovarian cancer and knowing your body can mean catching ovarian cancer at an early, treatable stage. With all of that in mind, let’s check out more about this important topic:

Ovaries are tough to see and feel, which makes early detection complicated and complex.
A woman’s lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.⁴
Only about 19% of ovarian cancers are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
The scary facts are that in the US, 21,880 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 13,850 women will die from the disease in 2010.⁵
But the good news is that the five-year survival rate is 45% for all ovarian cancer diagnoses, and grows to more than 92% when it’s detected and treated early on.

¹ http://www.facingourrisk.org/results.php ² http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/overviewguide/breast-cancer-overview-key-statistics ³ http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@nho/documents/document/acspc-024113.pdf ⁴ http://www.ocrf.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=36&Itemid=293 ⁵ http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@nho/documents/document/acspc-024113.pdf