Breast cancer: What are the symptoms? What are the survival odds and what are the causes of breast cancer?

Credit: PA

Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding has revealed she has breast cancer.

She announced on social media she is being treated for advanced stage breast cancer and is going through "weekly chemotherapy sessions."

Harding wrote: "I feel now is the right time to share what’s been going on and this is the best way I can think of to do so."

Here is some information about breast cancer in the UK.

  • How many people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year?

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 15% of all new cancer cases.

Across Britain there are some 55,200 new breast cancer cases every year – around 150 every day, according to Cancer Research UK (CRUK).

About one in every eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime.

  • What are the survival odds of someone diagnosed with breast cancer?

More than three-quarters of people (76%) survive breast cancer for a decade or more after their diagnosis, CRUK figures show.

But there are still around 11,400 breast cancer deaths in the UK every year.

  • What are the symptoms?

The first noticeable symptom is usually a lump or area of thickened breast tissue.

Most breast lumps are not cancerous, but it is always best to have them checked by a doctor.

Breast pain is not usually a symptom of breast cancer, but there are a number of other symptoms.

The NHS website advises people to see a GP if they notice any of these symptoms:

  • A change in the size or shape of one or both breasts;

  • Discharge from either nipple, which may be streaked with blood;

  • A lump or swelling in either armpit;

  • Dimpling on the skin of the breasts;

  • A rash on or around the nipple;

  • A change in the appearance of the nipple, such as becoming sunken into the breast.

  • What are the causes of breast cancer?

The exact causes of breast cancer are not fully understood.

However, certain factors are known to increase the risk of breast cancer.

These include age, a family history of breast cancer, a previous diagnosis of breast cancer, a previous non-cancerous breast lump, being tall, overweight or obese, and drinking alcohol.

  • What are the treatments?

There are a range of different treatment options for breast cancer including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, or targeted cancer drugs.

Doctors work out the best treatment plan for each patient and sometimes this can involve a combination of different treatments.

  • Sarah Harding said her cancer has ‘advanced’ to other parts of her body. What does that mean?

Advanced breast cancer means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.

Treatments aim to control the growth of the cancer and help to control symptoms.

Treatments might include hormone therapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or targeted cancer drug therapy.

Advanced breast cancer can spread to other parts of the body such as the liver, lungs, lymph nodes, brain or bones.

Sometimes cancer is advanced when it is first diagnosed, or the cancer has come back and spread after treatment for the original cancer.

Advanced cancer can also be called secondary cancer, metastases or metastatic cancer.

Locally advanced cancer means that the cancer has spread into the tissues around the breast. It has not spread to other organs. It is different from an advanced cancer.

  • Is there more than one type of breast cancer?

There are several different types of breast cancer, which develop in different parts of the breast.

Non-invasive breast cancer (carcinoma in situ) is found in the ducts of the breast which has not spread into the breast tissue surrounding the ducts.

This type of cancer is usually found during a mammogram and rarely shows as a breast lump.

Invasive breast cancer is where the cancer cells have spread through the lining of the ducts into the surrounding breast tissue.

This is the most common type of breast cancer, according to the NHS.

Other, less common types of breast cancer include invasive (and pre-invasive) lobular breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer, and Paget’s disease of the breast.

Breast cancer can spread to other parts of the body, usually through the blood or the axillary lymph nodes – small lymphatic glands that filter bacteria and cells from the mammary gland.

If this happens, it is known as secondary, or metastatic, breast cancer.