Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in the female population everywhere, albeit with different prevalence depending on geographic area, ethnicity, and lifestyle habits, and accounts for about 30% of all cancers affecting women.
Although rarely, men can also be affected by breast cancer, but in this case the disease is of a different type from that of women.
Contrary to what many people think, when we talk about breast cancer, we are not referring to a single disease, but an extremely diverse set of tumor subtypes, each of which must be managed in a targeted and specific way in each patient, on an individualized basis, and is characterized by a different prognosis.
The main forms of breast cancer are “invasive” breast cancer, namely ductal carcinoma (accounting for between 70-80% of cases) and lobular carcinoma (10-15% of cases), and “non-invasive” breast cancer, namely carcinoma in situ or DIN (Intraepithelial Ductal Neoplasia) and LIN (Intraepithelial Lobular Neoplasia). Other less frequent variants, characterized by favorable prognosis, are tubular, papillary, mucinous, and cribriform carcinoma.
If diagnosed and treated early, breast cancer in most cases can be eliminated permanently or otherwise be effectively controlled for many years.
The chances of cure are reduced in cases of neoplasms diagnosed late, at an advanced stage, and particularly “aggressive” forms with a high propensity to give distant metastases.
