LPBL – Week II – Group IV
STEP I - Unknown Words
There is no unknown words in this section.
STEP II – Keywords
* 42-year-old
* Female
* Colleague with breast cancer, gave a blood sample for gene-testing, had a mutation in the BRCA-1 gene.
* Her sister had breast cancer at the age of 36.
* Her father’s family has a history of breast cancer.
Step III – IV - Problem Sentence
*
* Mrs. K, a 42-year-old woman, is worried about a possibility of having breast cancer due to her family history.
Step V - Learning Objectives
* What is breast cancer?
* Age of occurance.
* Causes and symptoms.
* How can you treat cancer?
* Is it important to ...view middle of the document...
They are called estrogen receptor-positive cancer or ER-positive cancer.
Some women have HER2-positive breast cancer. HER2 refers to a gene that helps cells grow, divide, and repair themselves. When cells (including cancer cells) have too many copies of this gene, they grow faster. In the past, women with HER2-positive breast cancer have a more aggressive disease. They have a higher risk that the disease will return (recur) than in women who do not have this type. This may be changing with specifically targeted treatments against HER2.
Causes
Over the course of a lifetime, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
Risk factors you cannot change include:
* Age and gender -- Your risk of developing breast cancer increases as you get older. Most advanced breast cancer cases are found in women over age 50. Men can slo get breast cancer. But they are 100 times less likely than women to get breast cancer.
* Family history of breast cancer -- You may also have a higher risk of breast cancer if you have a close relative who has had breast, uterine, ovarian, or colon cancer. About 20 - 30% of women with breast cancer have a family history of the disease.
* Genes -- Some people have genetic mutations that make them more likely to develop breast cancer. The most common gene defects are found in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These genes normally produce proteins that protect you from cancer. If a parent passes you a defective gene, you have an increased risk of breast cancer. Women with one of these defects have up to an 80% chance of getting breast cancer sometime during their life.
* Menstrual cycle -- Women who got their periods early (before age 12) or went through menopause late (after age 55) have an increased risk of breast cancer.
Other risk factors include:
* Alcohol use -- Drinking more than 1 - 2 glasses of alcohol a day may increase your risk of breast cancer.
* Childbirth -- Women who have never had children or who had them only after age 30 have an increased risk of breast cancer. Being pregnant more than once or becoming pregnant at an early age reduces your risk of breast cancer.
* DES -- Women who took diethylstilbestrol (DES) to prevent miscarriage may have an increased risk of breast cancer after age 40. This drug was given to the women in the 1940s - 1960s.
* Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) -- You have a higher risk of breast cancer if you have received hormone replacement therapy with estrogen for several years or more.
* Obesity -- Obesity has been linked to breast cancer, although this link is not completely understood. The theory is that obese women produce more estrogen. This can fuel the development of breast cancer.
* Radiation -- If you received radiation therapy as a child or young adult to treat cancer of the chest area, you have a very high risk of developing breast cancer. The younger you started such radiation and the higher the dose, the higher your risk. This is...
