Breast cancer often occurs in stages.
Some cancers spread slowly while others spread quickly.
There are cancers that are predictable in growth and there are those that spread unpredictably.
The cancers that are unpredictable are created by the use of estrogen in the body.
The stage itself will depend mainly on the size of the tumor whether the cancer has spread or not.
Stage 0
Stage 0 refers to noninvasive carcinoma or carcinoma in situ. With this stage the cells are abnormal in the lining of the lobule but are not cancerous as yet.
Stage 1
The tumor has become cancerous and has grown to an inch in diameter but has not spread beyond the breast.
Stage 2
Either 1 of 3 things will happen:
1. The cancerous tumor grows to less than one inch across and has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm,
2. It has grown to be about one and two inches and has not reached the lymph nodes as yet but just leaning in that direction and
3. It is larger than 2 inches in diameter and has not moved.
Stage 3
The cancerous tumor has grown to more than two inches apart, and has reached and penetrated the lymph nodes of the underarms.
In some cases this type of cancer has been known to spread to the lymph nodes near the breastbone or other tissue near the breast.
The patient will lose most or all his or her hair and has to go through cinemotheraphy to delay the cancerous cells from spreading further.
Stage 4
The cancer becomes metastatic and fatal.
Its cells have spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes to other parts of the body. Under this stage, the patient is usually given a few months to a year to live.
Cancer is often recurrent.
This is a cancer that goes away but comes back.
Recurrent cancer usually happens when the treatment provided earlier did not get rid of all the cancer. Then the cancer just spread quickly and showed up.
You may not realize this, but what is often the case is that when medical treatment is given for cancer removal, it does not always get rid of all cancer.
Some cancer is hidden within cells and just does not get killed off.
Despite all misconception