Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast cancer may not initially cause symptoms, which is why screening is so important. However, the following unusual changes in the breast can be a symptom of breast cancer: American Cancer Society

• Swelling of all or part of the breast
• Skin irritation or dimpling
• Breast pain
• Nipple pain or the nipple turning inward
• Redness, scaliness, or thickening of the nipple or breast skin
• Nipple discharge other than breast milk
• Lump in the underarm area

• Weight: Being overweight is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, especially for women after menopause. Fat tissue is the body’s main source of estrogen after menopause when the ovaries stop producing the hormone.
• Exercise and Diet:  Evidence is growing that exercise can reduce breast cancer risk. The American Cancer Society recommends engaging in 45-60 minutes of physical exercise 5 or more days a week.
• Alcohol Consumption: Studies have shown that breast cancer risk increases with the amount of alcohol a woman drinks. Alcohol can limit your liver’s ability to control blood levels of the hormone estrogen, which in turn can increase risk.
• Smoking: Smoking is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk.
• Exposure to estrogen:  Because the female hormone estrogen stimulates breast cell growth, exposure to estrogen over a long period of time, without any breaks, can increase the risk of breast cancer. For example: Taking combined hormone replacement therapy (estrogen and progesterone; HRT) for several years, or taking estrogen alone for more than 10 years.

• Gender: Being a woman is the most significant risk factor for developing breast cancer. Although men can get breast cancer too, women’s breast cells are constantly changing and growing, mainly due to female hormones estrogen and progesterone. This activity puts them at a much greater risk for breast cancer.
• Age: Simply growing older is the second greatest risk factor for breast cancer. From age 30 to 39, the risk is 1 in 228 or 0.44%. That jumps to 1 in 29, or just under 3.5%, by the time you are in your 60s.
• Family history of breast cancer:  If you have a first-degree relative (mother, daughter, or sister) who has had breast cancer. Or you have multiple relatives affected by breast or ovarian cancer (especially before they turned 50), you could be at higher risk of getting breast cancer.
• Personal history of breast cancer: If you have already been diagnosed with breast cancer, your risk of developing it again, either in the same breast or the other breast, is higher than if you never had the disease.
• Race: White women are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer than are black women. However, black women are likely to develop more aggressive, advanced-stage breast cancer that is diagnosed at a young age. Asian, Hispanic, and Native American women have a lower risk of developing and dying from breast cancer.
• Radiation therapy to the chest: Radiation therapy to the chest area as a child or young adult, typically as a treatment for another cancer significantly increases breast cancer risk.