13 Breast Cancer Risk Factors

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13 Breast Cancer Risk Factors
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Introduction

• A risk factor tells a person about his/her chance
  of acquiring a disease.
• It is not always necessary that the person will
  develop the illness, like in the case of breast
  cancer.
• As per a Breast Cancer Doctors in India, many
  women with one or more breast cancer risk factors
  do not develop it.
• Breast cancer risk factors can be of the
  following types
• Inherent or unchangeable
• Environmental
• Behavioural

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Risk Factors

• Age
• Risk of breast cancer increases with age, say
  over the age of 40 or 55 and more.

•  Gender
• Breast cancer does happen in men too.
• But breast cancer affects more women than men.
• This is attributed to the higher levels of female
  hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, in women,
  which can trigger cancerous cell growth in the
  breasts.

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Risk Factors

• 3. Genetics
• A small percentage of breast cancer cases develop
  from heredity.
• Research on breast cancer has identified specific
  genes that are altered in breast cancer patients,
  the most common one being the BRCA1 and BRCA2
  genes.
• In normal conditions, the 2 genes actually
  prevent cancer by producing proteins that inhibit
  abnormal cell proliferation.
• It is seen that breast cancers that result from
  mutated genes occur more frequently in younger
  women, and these women are also prone to
  developing other forms of cancer such as ovarian
  cancer.
• Other less commonly occurring mutated genes that
  increase breast cancer risk are ATM, TP53, CHEK2,
  PTEN, CDH1, STK11, and PALB2 genes.

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Risk Factors

• 4. History of breast cancer in family
• Women with close relatives who have had or have
  breast cancer are at higher risk.
• The risk is double-fold in women with
  first-degree relations like sister, mother or
  daughter with breast cancer, and three-fold risk
  with second-degree relations like cousins, aunts,
  etc.

• 5. Previous personal history of breast cancer
• The risk of redeveloping breast cancer in the
  other breast or a different area of the same
  breast is high in a woman who has already had the
  cancer once.

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Risk Factors

• 7.  Ethnicity
• African-American women are at a higher risk of
  breast cancer as compared to women of Asian,
  Hispanic and Native American descent.

• 6. Dense breast tissue
• A breast consists of fibrous, glandular and fatty
  tissue.
• A woman with dense breast tissue has a higher
  proportion of fibrous and glandular tissues and
  less of fatty tissue.
• This increases the risk of breast cancer.
• Dense breast tissue can result from certain
  medications, age (nearing menopause), pregnancy
  and genes.

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Risk Factors

• 8. Benign breast ailments
• Breast conditions of benign nature increase the
  risk of breast cancer.
• Common are the non-proliferative lesions These
  may only slightly affect the risk of breast
  cancer.
• Conditions include
• Fibrosis or cysts, periductal fibrosis
• Mild hyperplasia
• Non-sceloring adenosis
• Benign phyllodes tumour
• Ductal ectasia
• Papilloma
• Fat necrosis
• Epithelial calcifications
• Benign tumours like lipoma, hemangioma,
  neurofibroma, hamartoma, adenomyoepthelioma

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Risk Factors

• 9. Early Menstrual Periods
• Women who started menstruating at an early age
  (before 12) and/or undergo menopause late (after
  55) are exposed to oestrogen and progesterone
  longer, and thus are at a slightly higher risk.

• 10.   Bearing Children
• Women with no children or has had children after
  the age of 30 seem to increase the risk of breast
  cancer.

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Risk Factors

• 11. Alcohol 
• Alcohol increases the risk of developing breast
  cancer in women, and risk increases with the
  amount consumed.

• 12.   Being Overweight or Obese
• Overweight women tend to produce oestrogen from
  fat tissue and their high insulin levels together
  make them prone to breast cancer.

You can consult Breast Cancer Doctor in India
here.
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Risk Factors

• 13. Hormone therapy
• Hormone replacement therapy, like that given
  during menopause, is one of the breast cancer
  risk factors.
• Get Breast Cancer Treatment Cost in India from
  NABH JCI
• accredited hospitals FREE of cost.
• You can also read about Superfoods that Fight
  Cancer.