health sectionhealth sectionAdvanced breast cancer killed 186,467 women in the United States in 2005, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Treatment is available for late-stage breast cancer, and there are many factors that affect life expectancy.
Breast cancer is a disease that has affected women for several thousand years. But the disease's origins remain a mystery. Medical scientists agree that because of the increased advocacy breast cancer study has received in the last 30 years, we are closer than ever to making the disease a thing of the past.
Advanced breast cancer is called metastatic breast cancer. This means that the breast cancer disease has spread beyond the breast to other parts of the body, such as the liver, brain, skin, lungs or bones. Metastatic breast cancer is the most advanced stage of breast cancer, as the cancer continues to grow and multiply in the other areas of the body. Most commonly, advanced breast cancer spreads to the bone and then to the liver and the lungs.
