Cancer disease can take several forms, but the most dominant one among women is “Breast Cancer”, with the statistics predicting about 12% of women in the US alone will test positive for this disease. In light of this severity, the current research is based on a rigorous process of improving the breast cancer patients’ life chances by inventing numerous vaccines.
Breast Cancer: Risk Factors and Statistics
Breast is a modified sweat gland and a distinguishing anatomical feature among mammals with the primary role of producing milk to nourish offspring. The human breast contains 12-15 major breast ducts lined by a layer of epithelial cuboidal cells surrounded by myoepithelial cells. These cells are supported by connective stroma tissue and embedded in fat tissues. The breast epithelium is composed of relatively inner luminal cells required for milk production and an outer layer of myoepithelial cells required for milk ejection (Daniel & Smith, 1999).
Breast cancer accounts for 23% of all cancers diagnosed among women worldwide. In the United States alone, there were 207,090 new cases of female breast cancer in 2010, accounting for the highest number of new cancer cases at 28%. According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, breast cancer in women was the second leading cause of cancer death with an estimated 39,840 deaths in 2010 (Jemal, Center, & Ward, 2010).
Treatments for the Breast Cancer
The recommended treatments for breast cancer include surgical removal, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hormonal deprivation for estrogen dependent cancer. Complications are an inevitable part of the medical treatment. Awareness of possible complications should allow all possible measures to minimize their occurrence. Open discussion with patients allows a realistic expectation of outcome and informed consent to treatment. Lymphedema of the breast after conservation therapy is prevalent. The breast is swollen and slightly erythematous with edema. This appearance is not uncommon following treatment of breast cancer by wide excision and radiotherapy, particularly after axillary clearance surgery, and an upper outer quadrant tumor in a large breast. Another problem is the poor cosmetic result following a wide excision of a cancer of the lower inner quadrant of the breast. Hair loss is expected during chemotherapy commonly used for breast cancer.
The fundamental premise for cancer immunotherapy encompasses enhancement of the body’s immune system to fight off cancer. Traditional methods of treating cancer such as radiation, chemotherapy and surgery have obvious limitations. Surgery would not be effective in widespread or disseminated diseases, while chemotherapy causes adverse effects on normal cells in the process of killing cancer cells. Therefore, a treatment modality enhancing and utilizing the immune system to fight off or prevent cancer is an attractive and sound concept; hence, the fundamental premise of cancer immunotherapy. There is a common belief that the failure of the body’s “immune surveillance” is the key contributory cause of cancer. In addition, there is a lack of enough evidence that, in many cancer patients, the immune system slows down the spread and growth of tumors. This means that we require a competent immune system to …