The World Health Organization reports that breast cancer was the most common form of the disease among women in 164 of 186 countries in 2024. The footprint of breast cancer is significant, and millions of women and their families confront that impact each year.
Breast cancer affects women in different ways. While each woman’s experience will be different, the following are some of the ways breast cancer can affect the body.
• Increased feelings of tiredness: Fatigue is a side effect of breast cancer and the treatments for it. WebMD notes that the fatigue women may feel while battling breast cancer can last for months after treatment, and sometimes even longer than that. But women may not be helpless against breast cancer-related fatigue.
In fact, WebMD notes that eating a well-balanced diet, getting sufficient sleep and staying as physically active as possible are some ways women may be able to alleviate the tiredness that can appear during and even after treatment.
• Changes to the skin:
According to Breast Cancer Trials, which is an organization made up of breast cancer doctors and researchers devoted to finding better treatments for the disease, the underlying tumor can affect the skin, blood vessels and the lymphatic system. That can lead to an assortment of skin changes, including some that might be the first sign of breast cancer. Redness, dimpling, thickening of the skin on the breast or underarm, scaliness, and persistent itching are some of the skin changes women may experience while battling breast cancer.
• Swelling in the upper body: WebMD notes that the lymph nodes from the arm near the breast containing the tumor are sometimes removed during surgical treatments.
That removal may be vital, but it also can contribute to a buildup of fluid that leads to swelling in the arm, chest, and even abdominal region. Stiffness and soreness in these areas also may develop. Chemotherapy drugs also can lead to the buildup of fluid that eventually can contribute to swelling in the arms and legs.
• Bone loss and vulnerability to fractures: The Endocrine Society notes that hormonal therapy for breast cancer can make patients vulnerable to fractures.
Fracture rates may be as high as 20 percent, and post-menopausal women may be particularly vulnerable to broken bones after hormonal therapy for breast cancer. Bone loss also may occur because treatments for breast cancer can decrease estrogen. Lower levels of a type of estrogen hormone known as estradiol has been linked to osteoporosis.
No two women experience breast cancer in the same way.
But the disease and treatments for it can produce some similar side effects that women can work to address with their health care teams.