Having a relative with breast cancer does not mean you will also develop it. It simply means that your risk is greater than it would be if no one in your family had breast cancer.

Six of every one hundred women will develop breast cancer at some time in their lives, the vast majority over age forty. Breast cancer is very rare during teenage years. During adolescence, the most common breast lumps are breast buds, which are a normal part of early breast development. It may be tender, and one side may develop before the other. The buds are needed for normal breast development and therefore are never removed.

If a woman has a sister with breast cancer, her risk triples. If her mother had the disease, her risk is about 1.9 times that of the average women. Other factors that seem to increase risk include having had no baby, having had a first baby after age twenty five, having fewer than six children (that is most of us!), having never breast fed, and, possibly eating a high fat diet.

Women who examine their own breasts for lumps have a significantly lower risk of dying from cancer than do women who never check, probably for the reason that they find problems early in a treatable stage. Interestingly, women who are more likely to examine their own breasts include those who have lost a close relative to cancer. Your doctor can easily identify breast lumps. In addition, your doctor can teach you to examine your breasts or can give you a pamphlet illustrating the technique.



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