Breast Cancer Risk
Factors
Risk is a person’s chance of getting
a disease over a specific time period. A
person’s risk is usually estimated by looking at a specific age group, race
etc..
For
example, by looking at 100,000 women, ages 20-29 for one year, approximately 4
would develop breast cancer. That is to say, 1 per 25,000 women. However, the lifetime risk of breast cancer
for an American women born in 1990 is about 1 in 8, if she lives to be 85
(komen.org). Risk factors can range from
lifestyle choice to genetics to environmental factors, such as radiation. It is known that early menarche (before age
12) have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Factors that decrease risk are called
protective factors. Women who have given
birth before age 30 have a lower risk.
Therefore, giving birth is a protective factor against breast
cancer. It is also reported that women
who take postmenopausal hormones have a 25 percent increase in risk.
Several inherited mutations of genes
have been linked to breast cancer, such as BRCA1, BRCA2, p53, and ATM. These mutations would increase the risk of
developing breast cancer, but they are in fact very rare in the
population. Thus, they only account for
10-15 percent of all types of breast cancer diagnosed in the U.S.
(komen.org) BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations
are well recognized, although it is estimated that only 250,000 women in the
U.S. carry this mutation. If one does
carry the BRCA1 mutation, they have a 60-80 % chance of developing breast cancer.
(BRCA2, a slightly lower risk) Since
these mutations are quite rare among the general population, it is likely a
combination of factors that contributes to the development of breast cancer.
(http://www.komen.org The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation)
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