I had my annual mammogram this morning! It took about 30 minutes from the time I registered until I dressed and left the hospital. It is one of the steps I take to lower my risk of breast cancer. Some of the factors associated with breast cancer -- being a woman, age, and genetics, for example -- can't be changed. Other factors, like being overweight, lack of exercise, smoking cigarettes, and eating unhealthy foods, can be changed by making better choices. Choosing healthier lifestyle options, empowers me and ensures my breast cancer risk is as low as possible.
The known risk factors for breast cancer are listed below:
Established risks:
Just being a woman is the biggest risk factor for developing breast cancer. There are about 190,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 60,000 cases of non-invasive breast cancer this year in American women.
As with many other diseases, the risk of breast cancer goes up as you get older. About two out of three invasive breast cancers are found in women 55 or older.
Women with close relatives who've been diagnosed with breast cancer have a higher risk of developing the disease. If you've had one first-degree female relative (sister, mother, daughter) diagnosed with breast cancer, your risk is doubled.
About 5% to 10% of breast cancers are thought to be hereditary, caused by abnormal genes passed from parent to child.
If you've been diagnosed with breast cancer, you're 3 to 4 times more likely to develop a new cancer in the other breast or a different part of the same breast. This risk is different from the risk of the original cancer coming back (called risk of recurrence).
If you had radiation to the chest to treat another cancer (not breast cancer), such as Hodgkin's disease or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, you have a higher-than-average risk of breast cancer. If you had radiation to the face at an adolescent to treat acne (something that’s no longer done), you are at higher risk of developing breast cancer later in life.
If you've been diagnosed with certain benign (not cancer) breast conditions, you may have a higher risk of breast cancer. There are several types of benign breast conditions that affect breast cancer risk
White women are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer than African American, Hispanic, and Asian women. But African American women are more likely to develop more aggressive, more advanced-stage breast cancer that is diagnosed at a young age.
Overweight and obese women have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer compared to women who maintain a healthy weight, especially after menopause. Being overweight also can increase the risk of the breast cancer coming back (recurrence) in women who have had the disease.
Women who haven’t had a full-term pregnancy or have their first child after age 30 have a higher risk of breast cancer compared to women who gave birth before age 30.
Breastfeeding can lower breast cancer risk, especially if a woman breastfeeds for longer than 1 year.
Women who started menstruating (having periods) younger than age 12 have a higher risk of breast cancer later in life. The same is true for women who go through menopause when they're older than 55.
Current or recent past users of HRT have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. Since 2002 when research linked HRT and risk, the number of women taking HRT has dropped dramatically.
Research consistently shows that drinking alcoholic beverages -- beer, wine, and liquor -- increases a woman's risk of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer.
Research has shown that dense breasts can be 6 times more likely to develop cancer and can make it harder for mammograms to detect breast cancer.
Research shows a link between exercising regularly at a moderate or intense level for 4 to 7 hours per week and a lower risk of breast cancer.
Smoking causes a number of diseases and is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer in younger, premenopausal women. Research also has shown that there may be link between very heavy second-hand smoke exposure and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women.
For more information on breast cancer, risks, treatments and prevention, check out the following:
http://www.cancer.org/fightbreastcancer
http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast
