Breast and prostate cancers are among the leading types of Cancer, which segregate individuals based on gender. Statistics from the American Cancer Society (2016) indicate that the number of women and men suffering from breast and prostate cancer respectively, is rising. Notably, both breast and prostate cancer have distinctive preventive measures, which help practitioners identify and manage them in their early stages.
Some of the prevention services rendered in line with breast cancer include screening and chemoprevention. Screening is widely used to identify and manage breast cancer at the tender stage. Mammography and MRI are the two main types of screening used to detect breast tumors. Sun et al. (2017) assert that mammography uses low energy X-rays aimed at attaining the highest quality images of the breast and identify any tumors.
On the other hand, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) facilitates the detection of breast cancer in its early stages. Remarkably, MRI plays an important role in detecting small tumors and aids individuals placed at high risk of contracting the type of Cancer. The preventive measure that aims to block the initiation of carcinogenesis and reverse any development of premalignant cells is another preventive measure used to manage breast cancer known as chemoprevention.
In the context of prostate cancer, chemoprevention hampers the production of testosterone and prevents the continued growth of cancerous cells. According to Barnard, Boeke, and Tamimi (2015), androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), which inhibits the production of testosterone, is effective in the management of prostate cancer.
The chosen factors, which comprise gender and genetics, have a close relationship with the type of decision taken in regard to the selected preventive measures. Fundamentally, the selected preventive measures used to manage breast and prostate cancer rely majorly on the gender of an individual. For instance, ADT is a preventive measure linked to the male gender. As such, during the administration of a preventive measure, the decision hinges on the gender of individuals.
Consequently, genetics dictate the decision on preventive options taken by medical practitioners. It is important to allude that both men and women who have first-degree relatives suffering from prostate and breast cancer respectively, have a higher risk of contracting the disease as compared to others in society. Medical practitioners make decisions based on the history of Cancer in the lineage of individuals. On several occasions, medical practitioners advise men and women who have first-degree relatives to undertake frequent cancer checkups so that any occurrence receives timely treatment, a justification that genetics dictate the decision-making process.
In extreme cases, some women opt for mastectomy as a preventive measure prior to any occurrence, especially if their mothers or grandmothers suffered from the condition. Therefore, it is clear that gender and genetics, which are the two selected factors, dictate the decisions made by medical practitioners in line with preventing prostate and breast cancer.
Breast cancer requires a number of treatment options. The options depend on the stage of breast cancer and the rate of progress. While some cases may require radiation and chemotherapy, fast-growing breast cancers require a combination of chemoprevention, radiation therapy, and surgery. Mastectomy, lumpectomy, and lymph node biopsy are some of the treatment options advanced by the American Cancer Society (2016) as useful in addressing breast cancer, which is not responding to radio and chemotherapy. Subsequently, initial treatment options for prostate cancer comprise the use of radiotherapy and chemoprevention.
Some cases of prostate cancer require the use of drugs such as Abiraterone, Radium-223, Cabazitaxel, and Enzalutamide. Medical practitioners usually use the drugs once prostate cancer becomes unresponsive to other types of preventive treatment and begins to progress. It is fundamental to explain that both breast and prostate cancer have long-term implications that may include removal of the breast in the case of a mastectomy, and permanent dysfunction of male reproductive organs, as is the case with treatment options such as brachytherapy.
References
American Cancer Society. (2016). Can prostate cancer be prevented? Web.
Barnard, M., Boeke, C., & Tamimi, R. (2015). Established breast cancer risk factors and risk of intrinsic tumor subtypes. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Reviews on Cancer, 1856(1), 73-85.
Sun, Y.-S., Zhao, Z., Yang, Z.-N., Xu, F., Lu, H.-J., Zhu, Z.-Y., … Zhu, H.-P. (2017). Risk factors and preventions of breast cancer. International Journal of Biological Sciences, 13(11), 1387–1397.