Breast cancer diagnosis ... and the outcome

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The specter of a breast cancer diagnosis haunts women worldwide, synonymous for some as a point of no return. And yet actress Christina Applegate, recently diagnosed, is expected to make a full recovery after treatment. Many do.

Although breast cancer remains the second-leading cause of cancer death in women (far behind lung cancer), Applegate’s disease was caught in the early stages, which makes an enormous difference in treatment -- and prognosis.

Breastcancer.org offers a list of the stages of breast cancer, from 0 to 4, with 0 describing noninvasive cancer and 4 describing invasive cancer in which the tumor has spread beyond the breast, underarm and internal mammary lymph nodes.

The National Cancer Institute offers an online booklet ‘What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer.’ And the American Cancer Society offers a statistical look at the disease, with estimates of new breast cancer cases and deaths, plus factors that can affect survival.

For a personal take on breast cancer, go to My Breast Cancer Blog or Life With Breast Cancer. (If you have other breast-cancer-related blogs, submit them as a comment below.)

Other recent news on breast cancer:

Breast self-exams don’t help. Or do they?

Taking the ‘ouch’ out of a mammogram

Exercise when young may cut breast cancer

Explain this: Breast cancer rates, sun exposure and Vitamin D

Hormone drugs had lasting breast cancer risk

-- Tami Dennis