Breast Cancer Basics

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of deathUnknown to many, breast cancer also occur in men.
in women today. Among the types of cancer thatThere however have been considerable emphases on
are being experienced by women, breast cancerwomen breast cancer in recent years because of the
comes second after lung cancer, claiming the lives ofalarming growth of cases every year. One's age is
more than 40,000 women in the country.another factor. As one grows old, the higher is the
By the end of this year, more than 200,000 womenchance that one will develop breast cancer. The
are predicted to develop invasive breast cancer insame goes with people, who already have a family
the United States alone. Right now, statistics put a 1history of the problem. In fact, studies have shown
is to 8 possibility ratio of developing breast cancer onthat people with relatives with breast cancer actually
women. There is about a 1 out of 28 chance thatdoubles their risk for developing it.
the breast cancer diagnosis will lead to death.Women who have gotten their periods early, before
Fortunately, because of the efforts of women'sthey were 12 years old and those who menopaused
groups to increase the awareness about the problemafter they were 50 are also at risk for developing
and the efforts of the government to address thethe condition.
issue, death rates are actually going down.Compared to Asian women, Caucasians seem to
Risk factors for breast cancerdevelop the problem more often. The same was also
It is actually not known exactly why women developfound with women who never had children or those
breast cancer. Unlike other health problems that arewho had children after they 30 years old. Women
rooted from a bacterial or viral infection, breastwho had radiation therapy in the chest area are also
cancer is not caused by any organism. The problemat risk.
only occurs when cells in the breasts begin to growFactors that you can change
out of control and start to spread even to the otherIt is not of course all bad news. While there are
tissues in the body.factors that are beyond our control, there are things
But while there are no exact known cause of breastthat we can do to lessen the chance of developing
cancer, there are some risk factors that increasesthe condition. Breast cancer can actually be
the chance of some women to develop the condition.prevented by cliché as it is eating right and
This is according to numerous studies that haveliving healthy.
correlated the presence of these factors to theAccording to studies, women who drink about two
occurrence of the condition. Although there are someto five alcoholic drinks every day seem to have an
factors that are already inherent in you, there areincreased rate of developing breast cancer. The
some who you still can do something about. Thosesame was also found with women who are
factors have been the focus of women's groupsoverweight and those who do not exercise regularly.
informational campaign, designed to teach womenPeople who take birth control pills and those that
how best to prevent the problem from developing.underwent some sort of hormone-replacement
Factors that you cannot changetherapy will also develop the problem.
One of these risk factors is gender. Surprised?