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The main objective I covered is “state the location of various tissues in the body” and I did so by adding different connective tissues, muscles, and epithelial tissues into my artwork. I covered this objective also with an emphasis on metastatic breast cancer, better known as stage IV(4) breast cancer.
The reason for my project and artwork relates back to my mother who was recently diagnosed with this disease. Metastatic breast cancer is a breast cancer that originates in the breast tissue and has spread to other parts of the body, which most commonly are the bones, liver, lungs, and brain. Metastatic is a word that means that the cancer has spread, which makes the cancer no longer curable for stage 4 patients, but treatable. For my mother, her cancer spread to her liver, lymph nodes, bones, and kidneys. The cancer on her kidneys isn’t too common for people diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, but it can appear in other locations I haven’t listed here. The way tumors (or “mets” as different patients call them) grow are because of cells that have grown too rapidly and they start to form a mass, which in turn can be cancerous or malignant (non-cancerous).
There’s many different types of breast cancer and it’s important to figure out where the cancer started in the breast to determine how to treat the cancer. When the cancer starts in your ducts, it’s called ductal carcinoma and it’s the most common type of breast cancer. When the cancer starts in your lobes, like I did with my artwork, it’s called lobular carcinoma. Then, if the cancer starts in your connective tissue(s) such as the fatty (adipose) tissue, the cancer is called sarcoma which is rare. Most of the time, breast cancer will not form in your connective tissues but there are cases of it happening.
Next, hormones are looked at to see if your cancer is being fueled by these different hormones, more specifically estrogen and progesterone. If the tests come back and a person is estrogen receptor (ER) positive, then it means that the cancer is being fueled by estrogen and a good treatment option could be to start on estrogen blockers better known as endocrine therapy. If a person’s cancer is progesterone receptor (PR) positive, then it means that the cancer is being fueled by progesterone in the body and the same endocrine treatment is a good option. For my mother, her cancer is ER and PR positive so she’s currently on different hormone blockers and she’s also been given shots to put her into menopause so her body stops making these hormones.
Another important determination of treatment and what’s fueling a person’s cancer is the genetic makeup of the cancer cells. A sample of the tumor is taken and its DNA is tested for the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). This is a protein that is made by cells and when there’s too much of it, it starts to fuel the cancer and allow it to grow aggressively. There are different cancer drugs coming onto the market for cancer patients that are HER2 positive. My mother is HER2 negative so she isn’t going through these additional treatments that treat this protein from being made too rapidly.
Metastatic breast cancer is a serious disease but because of advanced medicine and research, it can now be treated and many patients are living long, full lives. My mother was diagnosed a year ago and we weren’t sure what would happen, but now she’s stable and hasn’t seen any growth in her cancer, and some tumor shrinkage, which is great news! The cancer may never go away but I’m positive that my mother will continue to live a wonderful, grandchild filled life with her “chronic illness,” as we like to call it!
References
Breast Cancer – Metastatic: Introduction. Cancer.Net. (2022, June 3). Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/breast-cancer-metastatic/introduction#:~:text=When%20breast%20cancer%20spreads%20to,is%20called%20metastatic%20breast%20cancer.
Breast Cancer. Cleveland Clinic. (2022). Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/3986-breast-cancer
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2022, February 24). Breast cancer types: What your type means. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/breast-cancer/in-depth/breast-cancer/art-20045654
Metastatic Breast Cancer. Breastcancer.org. (2022). Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.breastcancer.org/types/metastatic
Metastatic breast cancer. Cancer Support Community. (2022). Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.cancersupportcommunity.org/metastatic-breast-cancer
Metastatic Breast Cancer. National Breast Cancer Foundation. (2022, November 21). Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/metastatic-breast-cancer
NCI Dictionary of Cancer terms. National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/breast
Overview of the breast. Overview of the Breast – Breast Pathology Johns Hopkins Pathology. (2022). Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://pathology.jhu.edu/breast/overview
The project was based on the author’s mother that was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Her objective was to state the location of various tissues in the body. She made an artwork to show where the tumor is and where the other tissues are in the body. She gave position to the tumor based on the front and side of the body. She touched on the part of the tumor and how where the tumor is leads to the type of cancer that you have. She gave us an event that happened to her mother and her. The reason being is to give depth into the tumor and how it grows. She gave us the different hormones that we have to watch out for to see what is fueling the tumor to grow. She mentions treatment plans that could help with the different types of tumors and where they are located and fueled. She, even, gave us what her mother is on to help stop the tumor from growing. It helps to know what the genetic makeup of the cancer cells are and so they will take a sample of the tumor to figure it out. She even gave us how her mother is doing with treatment, which is AMAZING!