Age is likely the most important overall factor associated with breast cancer risk. This cancer risk increases in the older post-menopausal population. For this reason, all cancer screening recommendations are based primarily on age. Obesity, however, may be the single most preventable risk factor associated with this disease. With the dramatic increase in obesity in the U.S., this may be the number one reason for a persistently high incidence in breast cancer. Other physical factors also play some roles in this cancer risk. These include height, body shape, breast size, and mammographic density. These physical factors are summarized below.

Body Weight: A woman's body weight does affect her risk of breast cancer but the effect is different for premenopausal and postmenopausal malignancies. Most studies have found that heavier women (weighing more than 175 pounds) have a lower risk of this cancer before menopause and higher risk of this cancer after menopause, compared to thinner women (weighing less than 130 pounds). Since 80% of breast cancers occur after menopause, the negative effects of obesity far outweigh the beneficial effects. The results are the same whether body weight is examined directly or if body mass index is used to adjust for the effects of height on body weight.

Body Shape: Several human studies have found that women who carry more of their body fat on their stomach (apple shaped) have higher rates of postmenopausal breast cancer compared to women with more of their body fat around their hips (pear shaped). This seems to be true regardless of women's body weight. The relationship of the location of fat on the body and premenopausal cancer risk has not been clearly determined

Height : A woman's height has been associated with breast cancer risk in many studies. Taller women (5' 9" or taller) have a small increase in risk of both premenopausal and postmenopausal cancer compared to shorter women (5' 3" or shorter). A person's height is determined by the interaction of genetics and nutrition. How height might affect this cancer risk is unclear.

Breast Size: There is a popular belief that small breasts are at lower risk of breast cancer. This theory has been used to explain why women with breast implants have a smaller risk of this cancer. However, most studies have found no association between breast size and tumor risk. One study, however, did find an increase in the risk of malignancy among lean women with larger breasts. In this study, more than 4,000 women were grouped according to their bra size before childbirth. Women who were lean (chest size less than 34 inches) and had larger breasts (size B, C or larger cups) were at higher risk of post menopausal breast cancer relative to women of the same chest size with an A or smaller cup size. Women with other chest sizes had no association between breast cup size and cancer risk. More studies are needed to confirm these results.

Mammographic density: Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that breast density as measured on mammograms is a significant risk factor for breast cancer. The risk of cancer associated with the highest category of density has been estimated to be much greater than in the lowest density category. Mammographic density appears to be predictive for developing invasive cancer after DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ). Increasing density is associated with increasing breast cancer risk in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, with the effect persisting for ten years after mammography. Mammographic density has also been shown to be a risk factor for this cancer in women with a family history of the disease. Mammographic density is probably important even in patients who are BRCA gene positive. In fact, mammographic density may actually have a substantial heritable component.



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Nearly everyone knows a friend or relative who has been stricken by breast cancer and who have succumbed to the disease. But there are also now a lot of breast cancer survivor testimonies that you can get from anyone.

Breast cancer remains the most common of cancers affecting women. It kills more women than any other kind, except lung cancer. About 150,000 women in the United States develop breast cancer each year, and 25 percent die of the disease.

Women whose female relatives have had the disease or have a breast cancer survivor in the family are more likely to be victims than women from families in which it is not present. The disease appears to be linked statistically also to women who do not have children before their 30s or who do not have nurse their babies; to women who reach the menopause later than normal; and to women who began menstruation earlier in life than normal.

There is increasing evidence also that ovarian activity may play an important role in the development of breast cancer. Women with ovarian tumors and women who use supplementary estrogen have been shown by some studies to be at increased risk, while the process of having many children and nursing them, which suppresses estrogen hormone activity, is associated with a decreased risk of developing such ailment. However 55 percent of the diagnosed cases are for women who have no known risk factors.

Cancer of the breast may occur as early as the teens, but this is rare. It is generally not found before the age of 30, and the incidence peaks around the time of menopause. Then there is a second period after the age of about 65 when the incidence rises again.

A breast cancer survivor would have a real change in his or her life. Surviving this deadly disease would make them realize about a number of things that they have done with their lives and they would have a second look about their lifestyle and ask why they had had acquired this kind of disease.



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Current cancer treatments-"cut, burn, and poison"-are recognized as crude and painful. Promising new methods focus on delivering anticancer drugs precisely to the cancer and on increasing the immune system's ability to fend off cancer. There are lists of drugs for breast cancer, each drug with its own pros and cons. Anticancer drugs have unpleasant side effects because most target all rapidly dividing cells, including normal ones.

The side effects include nausea, vomiting, and loss of hair. X rays also have side effects because, in passing through the body, they kill healthy cells that lie in the path of the cancer cells. Fortunately, there are now numerous lists of drugs for breast cancer. Each of which is tailored according to the patients' severity. The kind of drug a patient would take differs from other breast cancer patients because every person is different.

There are different kinds of ways to take a drug, whether it be intravenously (IV), orally, subcutaneously, injection, and intramuscularly.

Lists of drugs for breast cancer taken intravenously include the following: Abraxane IV, Adriamycin IV, Aredia IV, Epirubicin IV, Gemzar IV, Herceptin IV, Taxol IV, Taxotere IV, and Vinorelbine IV.

Abraxane (paclitaxel), Epirubicin, Gemzar, Taxol, Taxotere and Vinorelbine are drugs for patients on advance stages. The action is to slow or stop cancer cell growth.

Adriamycin (doxorubicin) used to treat breast cancer and other types of cancer. The action of this drug is first to disrupt and it would then destroy the growth of cancer cells. Aredia (pamidronate disodium) reduces bone complications of patients with breast cancer that has already spread.

Tamoxifen, a drug originally used as an anti-estrogen is now used as a preventive drug for some women in high risks for breast cancer and also taken as a treatment for such cancer in women.

Raloxifene is a drug that used to treat osteoporosis in women. Now, it is used as a treatment of breast cancer. This drug binds with the estrogen receptors and thus it produces some of estrogens beneficial effects without producing the adverse ones.

Fortunately, there are numerous lists of drugs for breast cancer patients that health service providers would know. Because of this list, they would have options for every breast cancer patient.



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Breast Cancer can be treated effectively if it is detected early enough. Some 95 percent of breast cancers are discovered by the patient herself when she notices a lump. In all too many cases the discovery is made by chance and the lump may be quite large. The good news, though, is that most cities have a breast cancer treatment center.

The cure rate for breast cancer could be greatly improved if all women made a routine of monthly self-examination and then consulted a physician immediately if they found the least indication of a thickening or lump. Most such lumps are benign, but it is most important that the ones that are malignant be identified without delay. Nearly every city has a breast cancer treatment center that would provide patients of services for full diagnosis and various options of the treatment of their breast cancer.

Cancer of the breast is a leading cause of death in American women. One woman in 8 will develop this condition. The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute recommend that every woman follow a prescribed method of self-examination just after the menstrual period, continuing every month after the menopause.

The procedure consists of carefully looking at and feeling the breasts, and takes only a few minutes. However, most cancers are diagnosed only after they have begun to cause symptoms, and the diagnostic method most used is the biopsy.

Currently, the American Cancer Society recommends scheduling mammography-X-ray examination that detects breast cancers too small to feel (less than 1cm)-every 2 years for women between 40 and 49 years old and yearly thereafter.

A breast cancer treatment center would provide patients for information or facts about handling breast cancer. They have support programs and services that would help patients and also their family in managing and coping with their cancer experience. Treatment opportunities like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy with corresponding medicine therapies, including healthy nutrition for patients as well as mind, body and spirit development.



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