A SPOONFUL OF T.L.C.

We are all aware of the key steps for "early" breast cancer diagnosis: self-breast exam, mammography yearly over the age of 40, and yearly exams by your doctor. This is also a disease that can affect males as well as females, teenagers as well as adults. Female teenagers need to get started with monthly breast exams, when they start regular menses. Family history also has a bearing in the frequency of breast cancer. This month let's spend some time explaining what the different breast cancer categories are.

Early: this cancer is confined to the ducts or lobules. It's curable more than 95 percent of the time, even though there's a small chance cancer cells may have already spread.

Invasive: This cancer has spread beyond ducts or lobules into surrounding breast tissue and perhaps nearby lymph nodes. Detection of a hard lump in your breast may be the first sign of invasive cancer. Most breast cancers have been present for several years before you can feel a lump.

Metastatic: This is cancer that has spread to other parts of your body, such as distant lymph nodes, bones, lungs, liver, or brain.