Breast cancer starts in the cells of female and male breast tissue. Breast cancer is more common in women, but men do get breast cancer as well.
Usually, the first symptom of breast cancer is a lump in the breast. Everyone, especially women are advised to regularly check their breasts for lumps and bumps to catch it early if they are unfortunate enough to get breast cancer.
If a lump has been discovered, a doctor/physician will do a mammogram and will then be able to confirm whether or not it is in fact breast cancer.

Whether you end up getting breast cancer later in life can be determined or factored by certain hereditary and environmental factors. Here are some of the factors that may determine who may get breast cancer. The age, sex, hormones, alcohol habit, smoking habit, obesity, high fat diets, radiation and other factors may make you more at risk of breast cancer.

Thanks to the developments in the medical industry, the breast cancer treatments today are very effective and the survival rates are also high.

Hormonal therapy removes hormones or blocks their action and stops cancer cells from growing. If tests show that the cancer cells have places where hormones can attach (receptors), drugs, surgery, or radiation therapy are used to reduce the production of hormones or block them from working.

Most of the hormone estrogen in women's bodies is made by the ovaries. Estrogen makes hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers grow. So reducing the amount of estrogen or blocking its action can help shrink hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers and reduce the risk of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers coming back (recurring).

There are several types of hormonal therapy medicines:

• Aromatase Inhibitors: Arimidex, Aromasin, Femara ...
• Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs): Nolvadex, Evista ...
• Estrogen Receptor Downregulators (ERDs)

Hormone therapy with tamoxifen is often given to patients with early stages of breast cancer and those with metastatic breast cancer. Hormone therapy with tamoxifen or estrogens can act on cells all over the body and may increase the chance of developing endometrial cancer. Women taking tamoxifen should have a pelvic exam every year to look for any signs of cancer.

Hormone therapy with an aromatase inhibitor is given to some postmenopausal women who have hormone-dependent breast cancer. Hormone-dependent breast cancer needs the hormone estrogen to grow. Aromatase inhibitors decrease the body's estrogen by blocking an enzyme called aromatase from turning androgen into estrogen. For the treatment of early stage breast cancer, certain aromatase inhibitors may be used as adjuvant therapy instead of tamoxifen or after 2 or more years of tamoxifen. For the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, aromatase inhibitors are being tested in clinical trials to compare them to hormone therapy with tamoxifen.

Do not confuse the term "hormone therapy" that is used for treating breast cancer patients. Hormone therapy for cancer treatment stops hormones from getting to cancer cells; otherwise, hormone therapy for post-menopausal women without cancer (often called "hormone replacement therapy") adds more hormones to your body to counter the effects of menopause.