BREAST CANCER INFORMATION

 

Who Gets Breast Cancer?

Anyone can. The average woman's risk of getting breast cancer before she dies (usually of other things) is 1:10. Most women (80%) who get breast cancer have no "risk factors" (but obviously, the other 20% of breast cancer sufferers come from a much smaller segment of the population). Men account for approximately 1% of diagnosed breast cancers.

What puts a woman at higher risk: "First generation relatives" (mother, sisters) with the disease; very early menarche and/or late menopause (because of the longer time exposed to the higher estrogen milieu of one's own ovaries); no (or fewer) children--especially if they weren't breastfed; history of breast biopsies, especially with "atypical" findings. Also at higher risk are women with a strong family history of colon and ovarian cancer.

There are dietary and other predispositions: women with diets high in fresh fruits, veggies, grain and soy are less likely targets compared to their "fast food/processed foods/meat'n'potatoes counterparts. Excess weight (releases more estrogen), cigarette smoking, alcohol excess and physical inactivity are also risk factors.

Types of Breast Cancer

Luckily, most breast cancer is very slow growing (taking many years from "first seed" to distant spread), making possible early diagnosis by mammography and self-palpation and prompt therapy before distant spread. A couple of rare forms differ from this norm (most notably "inflammatory breast cancer", which can spread distantly in a matter of months of its first notice as a firm, reddened area in the breast).

Very interestingly, the type of breast cancer that may manifest itself secondary to post-menopausal hormone stimulation is the most benign and easy to cure.

Prevention

There are a few things women can do to level the playing field:

1. Diets that are low in processed foods and saturated fats and high in soy, grains, fresh fruits and veggies are protective.

2. Breastfeeding (for at least 6 months) offers protection. Whether this is secondary to some physical or neuro-chemical reason, or simply because breast feeding lowers internal estrogen levels for a time is uncertain.

3. Not smoking or drinking alcohol to excess is protective.

4. Exercise.

Diagnosis

The operative word here is EARLY.

Mammography, frequently leading to directed biopsy, picks up breast cancer early, frequently prior to manifestation by palpation.

Conversely, however, if a mass "feels disturbing" to a qualified health care examiner, a "negative" mammogram should never delay biopsy diagnosis.

Coupled with mammography, breast ultrasound can help distinguish cystic (usually benign) from solid (more worrisome) masses.

Most early breast cancer are picked up by breast self-exam. 60% of masses picked up relatively early are done so by the woman herself; the remaining 40% by healthcare personnel. The ideal is a "daily" shower or bath palpation (to familiarize oneself with the usual feel of her breasts), plus a periodic (every 1-2 months) careful go-over and visual inspection.

Who should be genetically tested for breast cancer? Women with two first generation relatives (or one first generation relative plus other high risk factors), or women with strong family histories of ovarian and colon cancer may benefit from the (expensive) testing for BrCa-I and BrCa-II, the genes which place their "owners" at significantly higher risk for breast cancer.