According to the American Cancer Society, one in nine women will get breast cancer before she is eighty-five. The human breast is a gland that contains milk ducts, lobes, fatty tissue, and a network of lymphatic vessels. Cancerous tumors can arise in virtually any part of the breast, and are most often detected when a woman feels a lump. A lump that seems to be growing or does not move when pushed may be cancerous, or may simply be caused by normal fibrocystic changes during the menstrual cycle. A biopsy is required to identify the lump.
Breast cancer can also cause a yellow, bloody, or clear discharge from the nipple.
People tend to think of breast cancer as a single entity, but there are actually different types of the disease. These and several other relatively uncommon types of breast cancer tend to be less aggressive than the other forms. Infiltrating ductal carcinoma. Approximately 80 percent of all cases of breast cancer are infiltrating ductal carcinomas. In this type of cancer, a tumor arises in the lining of the milk ducts and, as it grows, it plugs the lymphatic and blood vessels.