Breast cancer Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Breast cancer - Term Paper Example luding family history, genetics, age of menstruation, and other  factors that have not yet been identified.  Though much less common, breast cancer also occurs in men.   Breast cancer patients usually experience a lot of stress and frustration due to reasons like the unpredictability of the disease, uncertainty of the future and financial difficulties (Lynn & Charles, 25). It is even more difficult for patients who have to go out of remission and face the medical complications over and over again. I know this because my mom had had cancer about 12 years ago and when she recently heard the news about her cancer’s return, she was hurt, tensed and devastated about it. Other effects of breast cancer include troubled sleep, body aches, headaches, pain, fatigue and anxiety. Moreover, many cancer patients including my mom worry about their physical appearance after extensive treatment procedures like chemotherapy, mastectomy and skin changes from radiation therapy and find it extremely difficult to make public experiences (Lynn & Charles, 25). But that certainly does not mean that patients cannot deal with it. By taking one step at a time and by the support of her friends and family, my mother is trying to deal with her situation. She prefers to keep herself still busy in work so that her mind remains occupied and tension – free. Almost 200,000 women suffer from the disease each year. Although there are many external factors contributing towards the spread of breast cancer, current investigations have revealed that genetic inheritance has a major part to play in almost five to ten percent of these cases (Lynch, 91-98). This knowledge, an ingenious finding by Mary-Claire King in 1990, linked breast cancer to the long-arm of chromosome 17 (Biesecker, 22-27). Since the discovery of possible genetic linkage, doctors have been able to delineate those individuals who are most prone to the disorder, and immediately, these women begin to act in accordance with doctor’s