Breast Cancer - Research Paper Example

The death due to breast cancer is a nightmare for all the women. However, National Cancer Institute has given some hope to the people by providing with the information that the survival rate of the breast cancer patients have increased from 48 percent to 52 percent in a span of 19 years (Mankiller, p.68). A number of women in US who are breast cancer survivors and won the battle against this life-ending disease are now leading a reasonably normal life. New York Magazine illustrated a story of a breast cancer survivor in 1992.

Joyce Wadler who is a resident of New York stated in the magazine, “I have a scar on my left breast, four inches long that runs from right side of my breast to just above the nipple. The true story is, that a surgeon made the cut, following the line I had drawn for him the night before. He asked where I wanted the scar, the surgeon took it out using a local, and when he was done, I asked to see it. A robin’s egg size with the grey brain like matter that gives it its name: medullary cancer.

It rested in the middle of a large ball of pink and white breast tissues, sliced down the centre like a hard-boiled egg, an onion like layering of whitish grey tissues about it, and I looked at it hard, trying to figure it out. We did know it was cancer until twenty minutes later, when they had almost finished stitching me up and the pathology report came back, and then I was especially glad I had looked. Mano a mano, eyeball to eyeball. This is a modern story. Me and my cancer. I won” (Wadler, p.36). The risk of getting breast cancer augments with age until the menopause, after which the risk decreases drastically.

The probability of having breast cancer is higher than of lungs cancer in young age. Most of the women become a victim of this disease at an age of 25-30 and they are the largest group of female cancer survivors. The breast cancer survivors face number of physical and emotional consequences after the treatment and need a special health care. Women who are breast cancer survivors, often lack confidence due to the physical changes they suffer after treatment and they hesitate to date someone. A forty-five year old divorced woman who is a breast cancer survivor said, “I do not feel as beautiful.

It is as if I am not as confident as I was before I had my breasts removed. I am not as confident getting to know someone new in that way, not at all” (Abel & Subramanian, p.95, 2008). This behavior of the breast cancer patients is due to the mistreatment they get from other people. They lose social life, their friends leave them, and they feel lonely. However, a positive attitude is all what a cancer survivor needs in order to enjoy his or her life. Sarah a resident of New York is a proud survivor of breast cancer too.

She was 27 years old when doctors told her about her breast cancer. She says, “Since I have had breast cancer, it is clear that I have changed. For starters, I value my body more now. I treat it more carefully and do not take it fore granted. I also think that I look better than before and like the way I look. Over the years, I have developed a dress style that covers up my bad parts and play up my good parts” (Kahane, p.22). Works Cited Abel, Emily K. & Subramanian,