Breast cancer is one of the most feared and serious diseases that affects women. Attention from the national media, women's advocacy groups, and public health organizations has helped create more public awareness of this disease. Even so, many misconceptions remain. Very few women understand how diverse a disease breast cancer is. Not every breast cancer starts in the same kind of cell.
Breast cancers can also have very different growth rates and tendencies to spread.
Many factors help predict how an individual tumor will act. Because of the number of these factors and how they might vary, every breast tumor will be unique. For example, some grow very slowly and have a very low risk of spreading. On the other hand, some can spread quickly through the body and become life-threatening. A woman who's been diagnosed with breast cancer should work with her doctors to understand her particular disease.