However, sometimes seen to develop cancers in multiple family members and successive generations, with certain characteristics such as occur at younger ages than usual and localized in certain organs. This may be due to the inheritance of a gene that gives them these people a greater risk of breast cancer and this occurs in approximately 2 to 5% of all malignancies.

The finding of patients with inherited genetic predisposition to cancer can provide a measure of risk that in the future to develop and implement preventive measures and early diagnosis order to reduce their incidence or to establish appropriate treatment early.

What are genes?

The genes are subunits of DNA that are present in all our cells and have all the information to make them work in an appropriate manner. Each gene has specific instructions to form a particular protein.

Genes determine our appearance, but also control the operation of each of the cells or groups of cells in our body (eg, colon, breast, gastric …).

Each person inherits two copies of each of its genes, one from the mother and one father.

Why is the alteration of some genes increases the risk of cancer?

The instructions in each gene are as a code. Sometimes this code may be different from a normal gene, this is called mutation.

For example, if the code in a normal gene is 1-2-3-4-5 a small change in this code, type 1-2-4-3-5 would give rise to a mutated gene that give different instructions to cell and would disturb their operation.

If the mutated gene is one that controls the growth of any cells in the colon or other organs, may lead to the development of cancer. Have to alter the two copies of a gene for cancer occurs, and if we have inherited a mutated copy now, it is easier to alter the other and the cancer develops.

Risk factors you can not change include:

• Age and gender: the risk of developing breast cancer increases as you age. Most cases of advanced breast cancer found in women over 50 years. Women are 100 times more likely to develop breast cancer than men.
• Family history of breast cancer: one also has a higher risk of developing breast cancer if you have a close relative who has had this cancer, like cervical cancer, ovarian cancer or colon cancer. About 20 to 30% of women with breast cancer have a family history of disease.
• Genes: Some people have genes that make them more likely to develop breast cancer. The most common gene defects are found in the BRCA1 and BRCA2. These genes normally produce proteins that protect you from cancer. But if a parent passes you a defective gene, you have an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Women with one of these defects have up to 80% chance of developing breast cancer sometime during their life.
• Menstrual Cycle: Women who start their periods early (before age 12) or went through menopause late (after 55) have an increased risk of breast cancer.

Other risk factors include:

• Alcohol consumption: the consumption of more than 1 or 2 glasses of alcohol a day may increase risk of breast cancer.
• Labor: women who have never had children or had them only after age 30 have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Get pregnant more than once or at an early age reduces your risk of breast cancer.
• DES: Women who took diethylstilbestrol (DES) to prevent abortions may be at increased risk of breast cancer after age 40. This drug was given to women between 1940 and 1960.
• Hormone therapy: You have a higher risk of breast cancer if you have received hormone replacement therapy for several years or more. Many women make this type of therapy to reduce symptoms of menopause.
• Obesity: Obesity has been associated with breast cancer, although this link is controversial. The theory is that obese women produce more estrogen, which can stimulate the development of this cancer.
• Radiation: if one received radiotherapy as a child or young adult to treat cancer of the chest area, there is a significantly increased risk of breast cancer. The younger you started such radiation, the greater the risk, especially if radiation therapy was administered when the female was developing breasts.

Breast implants, using antiperspirants and use of Sos

The International Day is celebrated on 19 October, aims to sensitize the general population about the importance of this disease in the industrialized world.

The word cancer is synonymous with carcinoma, is applied to malignancies that originate in cell lines of epithelial or glandular and not those that are generated by mesenchymal cells (sarcomas). Also excluded are tumors of blood, ie red marrow of the bones of the lymph nodes and other organs and Central Nervous System. Cancers or breast cancers account for over 90% of malignant tumors of the breast, but at least nine out of ten tumors or breast lumps are not malignant.

In medicine, breast cancer is known breast carcinoma. Galatoforos ducts located behind the areola and nipple, where it accumulates in hopes of going outside. This breast cancer called ductal carcinoma. In 10% of the remaining cases the cancer originates in glandular acini themselves and is called lobular carcinoma. Ductal carcinoma can spread through the light inside the duct and invade the interior of the acini in what is known as lobular cancerization phenomenon.

There are two main types of breast cancer:

• Ductal carcinoma begins in the ducts that carry milk from the breast to the nipple. Most breast cancers are this type.
• Lobular carcinoma starts in parts of the breast, called lobules, that produce milk.

In rare cases, breast cancer can start in other areas of the breast. Many breast cancers are sensitive to the hormone estrogen, which means that estrogen causes the breast cancer tumor to grow. This type of cancer called cancer positive for estrogen receptor positive cancer or ER. Some women have what is known as breast cancer for HER2 positive. HER2 refers to a gene that helps cells grow, divide and repair themselves. When cells have too many copies of this gene, cells (including cancer) grow faster. Experts think that women with breast cancer have HER2-positive more aggressive disease and increased risk of recurrence than those without this cancer.

Usually, the first complaint a palpable lump in the breast, which is usually not painful. Sometimes the nipple existence (or not bloody), or a nipple is not normally been discontinued. The first sign of breast cancer is sometimes a change in the skin of the breast or nipple in his (sudden onset of chest orange peel). Lumps under the armpit can metastases in the lymph nodes (lymph node) indicate. If a lump in the breast is felt, the risk of malignancy increased when the skin above the tumor is withdrawn, if the lump is attached to the skin or the substrate (not mobile is), and when the lump feels bad and a definite discontinuity between irregular shape.

When someone such a complaint, it is always best to go to the doctor. Often there is a benign problem, but the doctor is the one who can best judge. The evaluation of such nodules is difficult and security is often only with other studies (mammography, ultrasound examination, biopsy) to obtain. With a mammography done in the context of screening, or because of an increased risk of breast cancer, breast cancer can now be found that no further complaints.

The development of normal cell to cancer cell is a process with several stages. Risk factors influencing the probability that an ordinary seeds cell will ultimately develop into cancer.

BRCA1 and BRCA2, two breast and ovarian cancer genes. It caused (only) 5 percent of breast cancers. A woman with a mutation in the gene has a 40-85 percent risk of getting the disease. When several women in one family at a younger age breast cancer, one can investigate mutations in these genes. This refers to the family doctor to the clinic by the Department of Clinical Genetics (in Belgium Center for Human Genetics) in a hospital. In case of a mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2 is the preventive removal of the breasts an option.

Marzelle Phillip, MD, Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Melbourne city, told through the ABC radio after the success of preclinical tests with pigs, which regenerated the breast at six weeks, the next step is to perform the experiments with humans.

In the next six months, the scientists implanted in the chest of six patients a synthetic mold the breast form that will be connected to a blood vessel and contains cells controlled to allow the generation of fat inside.

Marzelle explained that the breast grow for six to eight months, and then the mold would dissolve naturally, thus avoiding a second surgical procedure to remove it.

The scientist said that in the next two years hope to develop this prototype and mold making is biodegradable.

According Marzelle, is not known how long it takes the body to produce fat needed to fill the chest, something he hopes to find out within a maximum period of four months.

If proven operating the project be expanded to create other bodies using the same principle.