During the regular physical examination, the female in her mid-fifties learned that she had a 2-cm non-tender mass in her left breast. There were no other symptoms or complaints, as well as any changes in the woman’s physical state. Moreover, the woman had no history of breast cancer in her family.
When the causes of such masses in the breast are benign conditions, they are described as fibrocystic breast conditions or the breast inflammation. It is also possible to refer to benign breast tumors that are of non-cancerous nature (Bansal, Bansal, & Bansal, 2015). These conditions are associated with the certain type of abnormality in the breast tissues, but they are not viewed as cancerous, and the fibrocystic breast conditions are most common among other benign conditions (Bansal et al., 2015). They are not threatening to the woman’s life, but they can be associated with the significant pain and other symptoms. The presence of the fibrocystic breast condition means that the tissue of the breast is fibrous, and cysts are filled with the liquid or fluid (Bansal et al., 2015).
When mammography and ultrasonography tests indicate that the breast condition is not of the cystic nature, it is possible to speak about the breast cancer. The most common type of breast cancer is invasive ductal carcinoma (Volinia & Croce, 2013). The main characteristic feature of this cancer is that it can spread in the breast, affecting the tissues. This cancer spreads when it starts in the epithelial cells, and then it breaks the duct walls (Volinia & Croce, 2013). Thus, it can invade the other tissues of the breast (Mahmoud, Lee, Paish, Macmillan, & Ellis, 2012). While focusing on such feature of the invasive carcinoma of the breast as the ability to spread, it is possible to accentuate its differences while comparing this type of cancer to the ductal carcinoma in situ (Mahmoud et al. 2012). In contrast to the invasive carcinoma of the breast, the ductal carcinoma in situ cannot spread because its cells cannot affect the walls of the ducts (Volinia & Croce, 2013). Thus, this type of cancer is not associated with metastasizing.
The discussed female has the invasive carcinoma, so, her breast cancer could metastasize to the lungs. However, it is important to note that there are differences between the metastatic lung cancer diagnosed in the female patient and the primary lung cancer. The first important difference is the origin of cancer. Primary lung cancer typically starts in the individual’s lungs. However, when the cancer cells were spread to the lungs from the other organs and tissues, it is possible to speak about the metastasized nature of cancer (Mahmoud et al. 2012). The other important difference is that cancer cells associated with the process of metastasizing are typical of cancer that was started in the organ from which it moved to the lungs.
Therefore, cancer in the lungs caused by the process of metastasizing from the breast is also discussed as of the carcinoma type. As a result, the treatments for the primary and secondary types of the lungs cancer differ. From this perspective, in the case of the patient, it is reasonable to use the treatment that was prescribed for her condition of the invasive ductal carcinoma in order to prevent the further worsening of her conditions.
References
Bansal, V., Bansal, A., & Bansal, A. K. (2015). Efficacy of SEVISTA (Ormeloxifene) in treatment of mastalgia and fibrocystic breast disease. International Journal of Reproduction, Contraception, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 4(4), 1057-1060.
Mahmoud, S., Lee, A., Paish, E. C., Macmillan, R. D., & Ellis, I. O. (2012). The prognostic significance of B lymphocytes in invasive carcinoma of the breast. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 132(2), 545-553.
Volinia, S., & Croce, C. M. (2013). Prognostic microRNA/mRNA signature from the integrated analysis of patients with invasive breast cancer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(18), 7413-7417.