Breast Cancer Basics

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women today. Among the types of cancer that are being experienced by women, breast cancer comes second after lung cancer, claiming the lives of more than 40,000 women in the country.

By the end of this year, more than 200,000 women are predicted to develop invasive breast cancer in the United States alone. Right now, statistics put a 1 is to 8 possibility ratio of developing breast cancer on women. There is about a 1 out of 28 chance that the breast cancer diagnosis will lead to death. Fortunately, because of the efforts of women's groups to increase the awareness about the problem and the efforts of the government to address the issue, death rates are actually going down.

Risk factors for breast cancer

It is actually not known exactly why women develop breast cancer. Unlike other health problems that are rooted from a bacterial or viral infection, breast cancer is not caused by any organism. The problem only occurs when cells in the breasts begin to grow out of control and start to spread even to the other tissues in the body.

But while there are no exact known cause of breast cancer, there are some risk factors that increases the chance of some women to develop the condition. This is according to numerous studies that have correlated the presence of these factors to the occurrence of the condition. Although there are some factors that are already inherent in you, there are some who you still can do something about. Those factors have been the focus of women's groups informational campaign, designed to teach women how best to prevent the problem from developing.

Factors that you cannot change

One of these risk factors is gender. Surprised? Unknown to many, breast cancer also occur in men. There however have been considerable emphases on women breast cancer in recent years because of the alarming growth of cases every year. One's age is another factor. As one grows old, the higher is the chance that one will develop breast cancer. The same goes with people, who already have a family history of the problem. In fact, studies have shown that people with relatives with breast cancer actually doubles their risk for developing it.

Women who have gotten their periods early, before they were 12 years old and those who menopaused after they were 50 are also at risk for developing the condition.

Compared to Asian women, Caucasians seem to develop the problem more often. The same was also found with women who never had children or those who had children after they 30 years old. Women who had radiation therapy in the chest area are also at risk.

Factors that you can change

It is not of course all bad news. While there are factors that are beyond our control, there are things that we can do to lessen the chance of developing the condition. Breast cancer can actually be prevented by cliché as it is eating right and living healthy.

According to studies, women who drink about two to five alcoholic drinks every day seem to have an increased rate of developing breast cancer. The same was also found with women who are overweight and those who do not exercise regularly. People who take birth control pills and those that underwent some sort of hormone-replacement therapy will also develop the problem.