What is BC Epidemiology?
Epidemiology is the field of medicine concerned with the study of epidemics, outbreaks of disease that affect large numbers of people. Using state-of-the-art statistical analyses, Epidemiologists, in this case, against breast cancer, investigate the cause of the disease, and finds measures for control and prevention. Among other diseases affecting large numbers of people, Epidemiological investigations now greatly encompass such diseases as breast cancer and secondary breast cancer, thus the term BC Epidemiology.
BC Epidemiology Facts: There are two areas to look at:
A:
• 192,200 new cases per year
• 2 million women in US with history of Breast Ca
• Breast Ca accounts for 30% of all cancers among women
• Lifetime risk 1 in 8
• Risk of death from Breast Ca 1 in 28
• 41,000 deaths per year
• 80% women diagnosed alive at 5 yrs
• Second leading cause of cancer deaths after Lung Ca
• Leading cause of death for women 40-55
B:
Epidemiology studies the distribution and determinants of health-related states and the application of this study to control of health problems. Is the scientific study of factors affecting the health and illness of individuals and populations, and, in this capacity, made in the interest of public's health, serves as the underpinning and logic of interventions. In the case against breast cancer, the epidemiologist works on issues from the practical standpoint, such as outbreak investigation, environmental exposure, and health promotion, to the theoretical, including the development of statistical, mathematical, philosophical, and biological theory. Epidemiological studies are generally categorized as descriptive, analytic, and experimental; terms often equated with clinical or community trials of treatments and other interventions.
History of BC Epidemiology:
The first known pioneer of Epidemiology was Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, in 1847; Dr. Semmelweis reduced infant mortality at Vienna hospital by instituting a disinfection procedure. Although his findings went published in 1850, his colleagues, having ill received his work, discontinued the procedure. However, disinfection became widely practiced when British surgeon Joseph Lister "discovered" antiseptics in 1865.
In 1849, Danish physician P. A. Schleisner related his work on the prevention of the epidemic of tetanus neonatorum in Iceland. Then during the outbreak of cholera in 1854 in London's Soho district, Dr. John Snow became famous for the suppression of the disease. He had identified the cause of the outbreak as a public water pump on Broad Street and removed the handle, ending the outbreak. Although long questioned as to whether the epidemic already slowed down and weakened when Dr. Snow took action, the history of public health always considered his timely discovery as a major event and thereby regarded as the founding event of the science of epidemiology.
And finally, in the early 20th century, Ronald Ross, Anderson Gray McKendrick, among others, introduced "mathematical" methods into epidemiology. Mathematical epidemiology models the progress of most infectious diseases not only to discover the likely outcome of an epidemic but also to help manage them by vaccination. Hence, the progression of BC Epidemiology in its step-up against breast cancer and that of secondary breast cancer, a woman in the modern world, attacked by breast cancer, has greater chances of survival than did her fellow species not long ago.
Secondary Breast Cancer:
Secondary Breast Cancer is when the cancer that started in the breast spreads to other parts of the body. The secondary cancer is made of the same type of cells as the primary cancer and has two ways that it travels to the other parts of the body: via lymph fluid, which flows through the lymphatic system, and via the bloodstream. If, for example, the breast cancer cells travel to the bones, they form another tumor in that bone. The fight against breast cancer continues.