Cells, being the most basic unit of living organisms, make up human beings. They come together and form tissues and organs in the human system. There are millions of them in different parts of the human body. While these cells are indispensable, an excessive outgrowth of them is not helpful. At best, they are benign and will result in tumors that are not so harmful. At their worst, they are malignant and result in cancer. Cancer can occur in any part of the human body, including the breast, testicle, colon, etc. Breast cancer is one of the relatively common types of cancer.
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer is a kind of disease that originates from one’s breast tissue. It is the result of the mutation of breast cells which grow out of control, creating a mass of tissue in a form of a tumor.
Like other cancers, breast cancer can invade and grow into the tissue enclosing one’s breast. It can also proceed along to other parts of one’s body, forming new tumors. It spreads outside the breast to other parts of the body through the lymph and blood vessels.
Breast cancer is said to have metastasized when it spreads to other parts of the body.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States and some other nations of the world, second only to some kinds of skin cancer.
The World Health Organization reported that there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 685 000 deaths globally.
Although this type of cancer is most attributed to women, men can also be patients of breast cancer too.
According to the Centre for Disease Control, about 1 out of every 100 breast cancers diagnosed in the United States is found in a man. The same kind of breast that is most common to women applies to men too.
Sources and types of breast cancer.
A breast comprises three major parts, and breast cancer can originate from any of these parts. They are the lobules, the ducts, and the connective tissue.
While the lobules are the glands that produce milk, the ducts are tubes carrying the milk to the nipple, and the connective tissue, which essentially consists of fatty and fibrous tissues, encloses and keeps everything together. However, cancer originating from the latter is rare, as most breast cancers begin in the ducts or lobules.
Breast cancers are of a different kind depending on which cells in the breast turn into cancer, as explained above.
Also, whether or not the cancer cell has spread is a basis for referring to a type of cancer.
Some of the types of breast cancers include the following:
Ductal and Lobular Carcinomas: Most breast cancer cases start in the epithelial cells that line organs and tissues throughout the body. They are regarded as carcinomas, which are tumors that carcinomas form in the breast; they are usually a more specific type called adenocarcinoma, which starts in cells in the ducts or the lobules.
They are also regarded as invasive breast cancer – when the cancer cells spread into surrounding breast tissue. This was the case in Grisham v. PROSPECT WOMAN’S MEDICAL CENTER, where the plaintiff was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma.
Paget Disease Of The Breast starts from the ducts of the breast and spreads to the skin of the nipple and then to the dark circle around the nipple, called the areola.
Angiosarcoma originates in the cells that line blood vessels or lymph vessels. It may pertain to the breast tissue or the skin of the breast.
Phyllode tumors develop in the connective tissue of the breast. Like angiosarcoma, phyllodes tumors are also rare breast tumors.
Trial graphics in cancer of the breast case
Different legal systems have leveraged the various technological advancement of our contemporary world. This has made legal proceedings faster and more effective.
Pictures are worth much more than a thousand words. Hence, the use of animation in explaining medical terms passes the information more graphically and increases the understanding of the recipients.
This is because, for a layman, deciphering medical terminologies is close to impossible, and this will undoubtedly affect the results of the proceeding.
This was the case in Evers v Dollinger, a medical malpractice case where the trial court granted the defendant’s motion for judgment because there was no proof of any damages immediately resulting from the doctor’s negligence to detect the presence of cancer cells in the plaintiff’s breast. Upon appeal, Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s decision was later reversed at the Supreme court.
This sort of case could have been a whole different ball game if a demonstrative exhibit like breast cancer animation was introduced.
With animation, the presence of cancer in either of the cells can be illustrated. Also, the growth of cancer over time due to failure to diagnose can also be illustrated using animation.
In conclusion, with the increasing application of 3D animation in the contemporary legal world to prove specialized areas of life, a breast cancer animation displayed as admissible evidence in a courtroom would not only make the trial smooth – as the medical jargon would be better relatable for the jury, the judge and the court setting as a whole – but also make the court verdicts more reliable.
However, such animation must be done by a legal animation company with experience in creating admissible medical trial exhibits.
