It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and here’s an article from delmarvanow.com that has 12 things you should know about the disease.
1. Clinical breast exams are as important as mammograms. Mammograms starting at age 40 are crucial (get them earlier if you have a family history of the disease), but they’re an imperfect screening tool, especially in women who have dense breasts. That’s why an annual clinical breast exam from a doctor is a must.
2. Don’t panic if you get called for a mammogram “redo” or have calcifications. Many women over 40 have calcium deposits (calcifications) in their breasts, and most of them are benign.
3. Get your folate. While experts say that an overall healthy diet may help prevent breast cancer, a growing body of research suggests that getting enough of the B vitamin folate (in leafy green vegetables, beans and fortified cereals) may help mitigate the increased risk associated with drinking alcohol.
4. Being overweight is riskiest after menopause. “In postmenopausal women, one of the most significant sources of estrogen comes from body fat,” explained Dr. Isaacs. “So if you’re overweight, you have higher amounts of circulating estrogen, which could stimulate breast cancer growth.” And it doesn’t take much: Losing even 10 pounds may help lower your risk.
5. Active women are less likely to develop and die from breast cancer. Regular exercise has consistently been associated with a lower risk of breast cancer. “Any type of exercise is likely to help by lowering estrogen levels,” Dr. Seewaldt explained.
6. Steer clear of soy supplements. Soy contains isoflavones, which can act like estrogen in your body and potentially stimulate the growth of certain types of breast cancer, explained Seema A. Khan, M.D., a professor of surgery and co-leader of the breast cancer program at Northwestern University in Chicago. But soy foods — edamame, soy milk, tofu — are fine.
7. Lumpy breasts don’t mean a higher risk of cancer. Many women have cysts in their breasts that come and go throughout their menstrual cycles (which are also known as fibrocystic changes). Feeling any kind of lump or bump can be scary, but these types of cysts don’t typically lead to cancer, Dr. Seewaldt points out. Pain also isn’t usually a sign of breast cancer. If you have pain in one or both breasts, rest assured: It’s probably due to hormonal changes, a benign cyst, a ligament strain or another condition, said Dr. Isaacs.
8. Breast cancer risk is not 1 in 8 for all women. That stat applies to lifetime risk, assuming you live to 85 or beyond. At age 40, the average woman has a 1 in 69 chance of getting breast cancer in the next 10 years; at 50, the risk rises to 1 in 42; at 60, it’s 1 in 29; and at 70, it’s 1 in 27. Which means that statistically speaking, women are at most risk for breast cancer in their 70s and 80s-but that’s when breast cancer has the highest cure rate because women in that age group usually get a less aggressive and more treatable form of the disease, said Dr. Seewaldt.
9. Chemotherapy isn’t always a given. These days, doctors do genetic profiling on a breast cancer tumor (using advanced tests like the Oncotype DX or MammaPrint) to gauge a woman’s risk of a recurrence. If chances are low, doctors may not advise chemotherapy.
10. Taking certain medications can help. Tamoxifen and raloxifene are drugs that can block estrogen’s ability to promote breast cancer. They lower the chances of developing the disease by about 50 percent in women who carry the BRCA1 or 2 mutation, said Dr. Brown.
11. If it’s caught very early, breast cancer has more than a 90 percent survival rate in the U.S.
12. If you have the BRCA1 or 2 mutations, removing your ovaries lowers your risk by nearly 50 percent.
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You can help us fight the battle against breast cancer today by purchasing any of the I’m Tired of Breast Cancer bracelet. We give half the sale of every bracelet to Breastcancer.org.
Being diagnosed with breast cancer and going through treatment can cause a flood of different emotions — fears about your long-term survival, anxieties about treatment and side effects, and worries about talking with your children are just some of the things you might experience. All of these feelings are completely legitimate. But how can you stay centered in the midst of so many uncertainties?
Women who get plenty of mushrooms and green tea in their diets may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, new study findings suggest.The study, of more than 2,000 Chinese women, found that the more fresh and dried mushrooms the women ate, the lower was their breast cancer risk.
