If you’re diagnosed with breast cancer is the rest of you safe? Or is it more like you have cancer in your body and it started in the breast?
In: Biology
Breast cancer is not just found in the breast.
As other people have stated, cancer is named for where it starts. If you have breast cancer, you will be lucky if you catch it while it is still only in the breast, because it’s a much more serious disease after it spreads. For instance, if the breast cancer cells migrate to the bone, they will eat away at the bone. This is painful and can make the bones break. If they migrate to the brain, they’ll cause brain issues there. And so on.
So yes, you can think of it as cancer which only started in the breast.
However, that said, “breast cancer” is a kind of peculiar term in that it includes many conditions which are not particularly serious. “Ductal carcinoma in situ” (DCIS) is technically a cancer (“ductal carcinoma” means that it is cancer of the milk ducts, which is where breast cancer typically starts), but the fact that it is “in situ” means that it is not invasive, and it may in fact stay in the breast. If you have DCIS, most likely the rest of you is safe. However, since most women who have DCIS opt for it to be removed, research on this is ongoing.
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