What is Breast Cancer?

What is breast cancer? Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer and we've all heard it discussed or even known someone with it, but what is it really?

First of all, cancer is a malignant tumor. This means it is a mass of abnormal cells in the body which have become diseased and begin growing uncontrollably. Cancers can originate in almost any tissue or organ in the body and vary considerably from type to type.

One of the common locations for cancer to develop is in the mammary glands of the breast. The mammary glands are modified sweat glands in the skin of the chest that develop more greatly in females and are specialized for producing the secretion known as milk. The cells of these glands in the breasts can become diseased and become cancerous. These malignant tumors of the breast tissue are what is meant by breast cancer.

As with other cancers, breast cancer first grows and causes local tissue destruction in the breast but can eventually spread to distant organs in the body.

Women have much more developed mammary gland tissue than males. Therefore, women are at much higher risk for developing breast cancer. However, men do have a small amount of undeveloped mammary tissue. Rarely, this small amount of tissue under the nipple can be the source of breast cancer in males.