Friday, May 9, 2008

Servers for a Cure

Over 10 million people around the world will die from breast cancer in the next 25 years. It’s a cancer that is stealing our moms, our daughters, our aunts, our sisters, our grandmothers and its affecting all of our lives. And in order to properly treat and one day cure breast cancer, it is important to understand what breast cancer really is, and what we are fighting for.

What is Breast Cancer
In short, breast cancer is a disease that affects the cells of the breast. Breasts, like the rest of the body, are made up of millions of cells. When the body is attacked by cancer, cells will grow abnormally and either circulate in the blood or immune system, or form lumps and tumors.
When these abnormal cells grow, they can form lumps in the body that are either benign or malignant. Benign growths will grow to a certain size, but will not spread to other parts of the body, and they are not usually life-threatening. Malignant (cancerous) tumors do not stop growing when they reach a certain size, and can pose serious danger to the body. They can attack surrounding tissues and possibly spread to other parts of the body where they will metastasize, or create new tumors. It is the process of metastatic growth in other areas of the body that is the most harmful.
The majority of breast cancers start in the glandular tissue of the breast, called adenocarcinoma, and the most common form of breast cancer is ductal carcinoma, which is in the milk ducts of the breast. While ductal carcinoma breast cancer is the most common, there are also other types of breast cancers that affect the body in different ways, such as inflammatory breast cancer.

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