Rare Diseases and Rare Medicines: breastcancer

Mammography is the process of using low-dose X-rays (usually around 0.7 mSv) to examine the human breast. It is used to look for different types of tumors and cysts. Mammography has been proven to decline mortality from breast cancer. No other imaging technique has been shown to reduce risk, but self-breast examination (SBE) and physician examination are necessary for regular breast care. In some countries routine (annual to five-yearly) mammography of older women is encouraged as a screening method to diagnose early breast cancer. Screening mammograms were first proven to save lives in research published by Sam Shapiro, Philip Strax and Louis Venet in 1966.
Risk Factors of Mammography treatment for breast cancer :
There is always a slight chance of cancer from radiation. However, the benefit of an accurate diagnosis far outweighs the risk. The effective radiation dose from a mammogram is about 0.7 mSv, which is about the same as the average person receives from background radiation in three months. Federal mammography guidelines require that each unit be checked by a medical physicist every year to ensure that the unit operates correctly. See the Safety page for more information about radiation dose.. False Positive Mammograms. Five percent to 15 percent of screening mammograms require more testing such as additional mammograms or ultrasound. Most of these tests turn out to be normal. If there is an abnormal finding a follow-up or biopsy may have to be performed. Most of the biopsies confirm that no cancer was present. It is estimated that a woman who has yearly mammograms between ages 40 and 49 has about a 30 percent chance of having a false-positive mammogram at some point in that decade and about a 7 percent to 8 percent chance of having a breast biopsy within the 10-year period. The estimate for false-positive mammograms is about 25 percent for women ages 50 or older. Women should always inform their physician or x-ray technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant. See the Safety page for more information about pregnancy and x-rays.
Source : http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=mammo&bhcp=1#part_nine

Breast cancer is the fifth most common cancer. Mostly found in womens over 30s.In the United States, breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in women, and the second most common cause of cancer death in women

Early breast cancer can in some cases present as breast pain (mastodynia) or a painful lump. Since the advent of breast mammography, breast cancer is most frequently discovered as an asymptomatic nodule on a mammogram, before any symptoms are present. A lump under the arm or above the collarbone that does not go away may be present. Other possible symptoms or medical signs include nipple discharge, bleeding from the nipple, new nipple inversion, and changes in the skin overlying the breast, often resembling an orange peel, known as peau d'orange.When breast cancer associates with skin inflammation, this is known as inflammatory breast cancer. In inflammatory breast cancer, the breast tumor itself is causing an inflammatory reaction of the skin, and this can cause pain, swelling, warmth, and redness throughout the entire breast.

Changes in the appearance or shape of the breast can raise suspicions of breast cancer.
Another reported symptom complex of breast cancer is Paget's disease of the breast. This syndrome presents as eczematoid skin changes at the nipple, and is a late manifestation of an underlying breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Ayurvedic Treatment :

The treatment of breast cancer is divided into two different drugs: Drugs for general treatment and Drugs for specific treatment. The general treatment is based on the drugs which subdue the abnormal growth, clean the blood and muscular tissues, restore the balance of the bodily systems, maintain the stamina and heal the ulceration.
The specific treatment depends upon the condition of the breast cancer that is drug for neuralgic condition, drug for hard tumor, drug for lipoma, drug for myoma, drug for angioma, drug for neoplasm developed within the ulcer or wound and drug for adenoma.

Source : http://www.bajracharya.org/ayurvedicclinic/treatframe.html

Breast Cancer Alternative Medicines :

Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. - "Conventional cancer therapy is so toxic and dehumanizing that I fear it far more than I fear death from cancer. We know that conventional therapy doesn't work--if it did, you would not fear cancer any more than you fear pneumonia. It is the utter lack of certainty as to the outcome of conventional treatment that virtually screams for more freedom of choice in the area of cancer therapy. Yet most alternative therapies regardless of potential or proven benefit, are outlawed, which forces patients to submit to the failures that we know don't work, because there's no other choice."

Source : http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/breastcancer.htm