Where In the Breast Does Cancer Usually Occur?

— -- Question: What are the different parts of the breast, and where in the breast does cancer usually occur?

Answer: The breast is really made as a milk factory; its job is to make milk and feed the young. And it has lobules that make the milk and ducts that carry the milk to the nipple. If you think about a branch of a tree, the lobules are like the leaves and the duct is like the branches. They all, 6-8 ducts, coalesce in the nipple and come out in 6-8 openings to release the milk.

Breast cancer starts in the lining of the milk ducts, so all breast cancer starts in the lining of the milk ducts. Either it's ductile cancer or lobule cancer. The rest of the tissue in the breast is fat, and it's fibrous tissue that sort of holds us up and out there. But it's the ducts that are the important part.

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