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Last Updated: Sep 2009
Last Updated: Sep 2009
It wasn't until doctors achieved greater understanding of the circulatory system in the 17th century that they could establish a link between breast cancer and the lymph nodes in the armpit. The French surgeon Jean Louis Petit (1674-1750) and later the Scottish surgeon Benjamin Bell (1749-1806) were the first to remove the lymph nodes, breast tissue, and underlying chest muscle. Their successful work was carried on by William Stewart Halsted who started performing mastectomies in 1882. He became known for his Halsted radical mastectomy, a surgical procedure that remained popular up to the 1970s.
It is important to have a model of causation of a disease in order to distinguish epidemiological risk factors or associations with disease, from the biological etiology and primary cause, secondary co-factors, and simple promoters of the disease. The first work on breast cancer epidemiology was done by Janet Lane-Claypon, who published a comparative study in 1926 of 500 breast cancer cases and 500 control patients of the same background and lifestyle for the British Ministry of Health.
Today, breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, is considered to be a result of damage to DNA. How this mechanism may occur comes from several known or hypothesized factors (such as exposure to ionizing radiation, or viral mutagenesis). Some factors lead to an increased rate of mutation (exposure to estrogens) and decreased repair (the BRCA1, BRCA2 and p53) genes. Although many epidemiological risk factors, and biological co-factors and promoters have been identified, the majority of breast cancer incidence remains unattributable, and the primary cause is unknown.
Dietary influences have been proposed and examined, and recent research suggests that low fat diets may significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer as well as the recurrence of breast cancer. A significant environmental effect was revealed by the large difference in breast cancer incidence between countries and continents, and a migration effect which slowly increases the risk of breast cancer even across generations after migration from a country of lower incidence to a country of higher incidence, such as moving from China or Japan to the United States. Humans are not the only mammal prone to breast cancer. Some strains of mice, namely the house mouse (Mus domesticus) are prone to breast cancer which is caused by infection with the mouse mammary tumour virus (MMTV or "Bittner virus" for its discoverer Hans Bittner), by random insertional mutagenesis. Suspicion of MMTV or other viruses in human breast cancer is controversial, and the idea is not generally accepted for lack of direct and definitive evidence. There is much more research in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer than in its cause.
It is important to have a model of causation of a disease in order to distinguish epidemiological risk factors or associations with disease, from the biological etiology and primary cause, secondary co-factors, and simple promoters of the disease. The first work on breast cancer epidemiology was done by Janet Lane-Claypon, who published a comparative study in 1926 of 500 breast cancer cases and 500 control patients of the same background and lifestyle for the British Ministry of Health.
Today, breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, is considered to be a result of damage to DNA. How this mechanism may occur comes from several known or hypothesized factors (such as exposure to ionizing radiation, or viral mutagenesis). Some factors lead to an increased rate of mutation (exposure to estrogens) and decreased repair (the BRCA1, BRCA2 and p53) genes. Although many epidemiological risk factors, and biological co-factors and promoters have been identified, the majority of breast cancer incidence remains unattributable, and the primary cause is unknown.
Dietary influences have been proposed and examined, and recent research suggests that low fat diets may significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer as well as the recurrence of breast cancer. A significant environmental effect was revealed by the large difference in breast cancer incidence between countries and continents, and a migration effect which slowly increases the risk of breast cancer even across generations after migration from a country of lower incidence to a country of higher incidence, such as moving from China or Japan to the United States. Humans are not the only mammal prone to breast cancer. Some strains of mice, namely the house mouse (Mus domesticus) are prone to breast cancer which is caused by infection with the mouse mammary tumour virus (MMTV or "Bittner virus" for its discoverer Hans Bittner), by random insertional mutagenesis. Suspicion of MMTV or other viruses in human breast cancer is controversial, and the idea is not generally accepted for lack of direct and definitive evidence. There is much more research in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer than in its cause.
Breast cancer is a cancer of the breast tissue. Worldwide, it is the most common form of cancer in females - affecting, at some time in their lives, approximately one out of thirty-nine to one out of three women who reach age ninety in the Western world. It is the second most fatal cancer in women (after lung cancer), and the number of cases has significantly increased since the 1970s, a phenomenon partly blamed on modern lifestyles in the Western world. Because the breast is composed of identical tissues in males and females, breast cancer also occurs in males, though it is far less common.
Breast cancer may be one of the oldest known forms of cancer tumors in humans. The oldest description of cancer (although the term cancer was not used) was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 BC. The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization, with a tool called "the fire drill." The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment." At least one of the described cases is male. For centuries, physicians described similar cases in their practises, with the same sad conclusion.
Breast cancer may be one of the oldest known forms of cancer tumors in humans. The oldest description of cancer (although the term cancer was not used) was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 BC. The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization, with a tool called "the fire drill." The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment." At least one of the described cases is male. For centuries, physicians described similar cases in their practises, with the same sad conclusion.
