Determining Your Breast Cancer Risk
Treatment for breast cancer , if the condition is caught early enough, has a very high success rate. Understanding your risk factors will help you be vigilant in getting the tests you need early enough for a successful early diagnosis. These calculators will help you evaluate your risk for breast cancer:
- Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool - An online assessment tool from the National Cancer Institute.
- Calculate Your Breast Cancer Risk - An quiz from Breast Cancer Prevention.
- Breast Cancer Risk Assessment - An interactive assessment offered by Merck.
One of the biggest breast cancer risk factors, outside of gender, is age. Women over the age of 60 have the highest risk of developing the condition, although why this is the case is not yet known. Overall health also plays a role. Women who are active, maintain a healthy weight, and eat a healthy diet are at lower risk than those who are unhealthy.
Personal and family histories also increase your risk of developing the condition. If you have ever had breast cancer, even if you no longer have the affected breast, you are more likely to develop it in your other breast than someone who has never had it. If your mother, sister, or daughter has had the condition, you are also at higher risk for the condition.
There is also a genetic factor to consider when assessing breast cancer risk. There are genetic mutations that increase breast cancer risk, and these can be passed from parent to child. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the two most common mutations that cause breast cancer. If you have had a parent who had cancer because of this mutation, genetic testing can help you determine if genes were the cause. If they are, further testing can show you if you have the gene mutation.
People who have had radiation exposure to the chest area in their youth are more likely to develop breast cancer as an older adult. Also, obesity increases an individual's risk for breast cancer. A history of alcoholism is also believed to increase this risk.
There are certain risk factors specific to female patients. For instance, those who get their periods before the age of 12 are at higher risk. On the other hand, women who enter menopause after the age of 55 are at higher risk for the disease. Women who wait until they are over the age of 35 to have their first baby increase their risk of breast cancer.
Currently, studies are being done into hormone therapies and their affect on breast cancer. For now, researchers know that hormone therapies that combine progesterone and estrogen as a treatment for post-menopausal women does increase a woman's breast cancer risk. The risk from other hormones, such as straight estrogen or birth control medications, has yet to be determined.
A woman who wants to determine her breast cancer risk does not need nursing training. A few online tools and a discussion with her doctor is often all it takes to determine how much risk she has for the disease. No matter what, living a healthy lifestyle will help decrease her risk and allow her to live a long, healthy life.
