Do you know?
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in North American women.
It is a leading cause of cancer death, second only to lung cancer. Simply
being a woman and getting older puts you at risk for breast cancer.
What puts me at risk?
Risk for developing breast cancer is individual. It depends on a
combination of lifestyle and personal traits known as "risk factors." The
following risk factors are strongly related to the disease and can alert you
and your physician to the need for careful follow-up:
- A family history of breast cancer, especially in your mother,
sister(s), or daughter(s)
- Age; in general, the older you are, the greater your risk
- Never having borne a child
- Having your first child after age 30
- First menstrual period at an early age
- A history of benign breast disease that required biopsies
- Other breast conditions: lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) or
atypical hyperplasia
How can you determine your individual risk?
Just knowing these risk factors for breast cancer will not establish your
individual risk. Researchers have developed a computerized formula known as
the Gail model, that can evaluate your personal risk factors and predict
your five-year and lifetime risk for developing breast cancer. This breast
cancer risk calculation is fast and simple. If you would like to know your
own predicted breast cancer risk, you can calculate it
HERE
Understanding Breast Cancer: Prevention
How Can I Prevent Breast Cancer?
Doctors still are not certain how you can stop breast cancer from
happening in the first place.
RRegular aerobic exercise may offer some protection against a woman's
risk of developing breast cancer. Studies have found that women who
exercised vigorously and often were only half as likely as non-exercisers to
get breast cancer, even though other factors probably played a role.
Exercise also can help women with breast cancer better tolerate the side
effects of radiation or chemotherapy and can help promote a faster recovery
after surgery.
Nutrition and Diet to Prevent Breast Cancer
Diet plays a role in breast cancer prevention. Dietary fats may increase
your risk of developing breast cancer, and fruits, vegetables, and grains
may help to reduce the risk. It's a good idea to make whole-milk dairy
products, meat, and foods fried at high temperatures only occasional treats
rather than staples. You can enliven your menus by sampling different kinds
of fresh fruits and vegetables and basing new dishes on whole grains and
legumes. This way, you're bound to get plenty of fiber, along with vitamins
and minerals thought to protect against breast cancer, specifically vitamins
A, C, D, and E, and calcium, selenium, and iodine. We recommend that all
patients take a multi-vitamin high in anti-oxidants.
Limit alcohol: more than 3 drinks a week leads to an increased risk of
breast cancer.
IIt's important to keep in mind that dietary measures are insufficient to
overcome other risk factors for breast cancer. Women who take adhere to a
healthy diet should still take other preventive measures such as having
regular mammograms.
Early detection
Catching the disease and treating it early in its development when it is
the most treatable remains proper strategy for better cancer outcome.
The following is a common strategy, but ask your doctor exactly what
you should do to help prevent breast cancer or find it early:
- Check your breasts once a month, three to five days after your
menstrual period ends. Have a thorough medical checkup once a year, and
have mammograms every one to two years if you are aged 40 or older.
Beginning at 50, yearly mammograms are recommended. Start mammograms
earlier if you have a family history of breast cancer.
- Build your diet around fruit, vegetables, grains, and fish.
- If you use contraception, ask your doctor about the pros and cons of
birth control pills.
- At menopause, obtain hormone levels and balance the hormones
appropriately with the main estrogen – estriol.
How can you determine your individual risk?
How to Perform a Breast Self-Exam
Beginning in their 20s, women should be told about the benefits and
limitations of breast self-exam (BSE). Women should know how their
breasts normally look and feel and report any new breast changes to a
health professional as soon as they are found. Finding a breast change
does not necessarily mean there is a cancer.
A woman can notice changes by being aware of how her breasts normally
look and feel and by feeling her breasts for changes (breast awareness),
or by choosing to use a step-by-step approach (see below) and using a
specific schedule to examine her breasts.
If you choose to do BSE, the information below is a step-by-step
approach for the exam. The best time for a woman to examine her breasts
is when the breasts are not tender or swollen. Women who examine their
breasts should have their technique reviewed during their periodic
health exams by their health care professional.
WWomen with breast implants can do BSE. It may be helpful to have the
surgeon help identify the edges of the implant so that you know what you
are feeling. There is some thought that the implants push out the breast
tissue and may actually make it easier to examine. Women who are
pregnant or breast-feeding can also choose to examine their breasts
regularly.
How to examine your breasts
- • Lie down and place your right arm behind your head. The exam is
done while lying down, not standing up. This is because when lying down
the breast tissue spreads evenly over the chest wall and is as thin as
possible, making it much easier to feel all the breast tissue.
- • Use the finger pads of the 3 middle fingers on your left hand to
feel for lumps in the right breast. Use overlapping dime-sized circular
motions of the finger pads to feel the breast tissue.
- • Use 3 different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue.
Light pressure is needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin; medium
pressure to feel a little deeper; and firm pressure to feel the tissue
closest to the chest and ribs. A firm ridge in the lower curve of each
breast is normal. If you're not sure how hard to press, talk with your
doctor or nurse. Use each pressure level to feel the breast tissue
before moving on to the next spot.
- • Move around the breast in an up and down pattern starting at an
imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and
moving across the breast to the middle of the chest bone (sternum or
breastbone). Be sure to check the entire breast area going down until
you feel only ribs and up to the neck or collar bone (clavicle).
- • There is some evidence to suggest that the up-and-down pattern
(sometimes called the vertical pattern) is the most effective pattern
for covering the entire breast, without missing any breast tissue.
- • Repeat the exam on your left breast, using the finger pads of the
right hand.
- • While standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing
firmly down on your hips, look at your breasts for any changes of size,
shape, contour, or dimpling, or redness or scaliness of the nipple or
breast skin. (The pressing down on the hips position contracts the chest
wall muscles and enhances any breast changes.)
- • Examine each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your
arm only slightly raised so you can easily feel in this area. Raising
your arm straight up tightens the tissue in this area and makes it
harder to examine.
This procedure for doing breast self exam is different than in
previous recommendations. These changes represent an extensive review of
the medical literature and input from an expert advisory group. There is
evidence that this position (lying down), area felt, pattern of coverage
of the breast, and use of different amounts of pressure increase a
woman's ability to find abnormal areas.
