Breast cancer is a type of a cancer which originates from the breast tissue. The characteristics of the cancer are important for conducting a treatment and some common forms of treatment for breast cancer include surgery, radiation, medications and immunotherapy etc.
Breast cancer is 100 times more common in women than in men and accounts for 22.9% of all types of cancer, making it one of the most common cancer types. The survival rate from breast cancer depends upon the stage at which it is diagnosed and the treatment used.
Let’s take a look at some of the risk factors of breast cancer.
- Gender
Gender is a risk factor of breast cancer which means that females are at a much higher risk of breast cancer than males.
- Aging
Age also plays an important role in determining who is at a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Those women who are under the age of 45 are at a higher risk whereas those above are at a slightly lower risk.
- Family history of breast cancer
Those women whose close blood relatives have had breast cancer are at a higher risk of breast cancer and this means that family history plays an important role in determining the chances of this disease.
- Personal history of breast cancer
A woman with cancer in one of the breasts is at a higher risk of developing cancer even in the other breast. Infact her chances of developing this cancer is increased by about 3-4 times.
- Race and ethnicity
It has been proved that white women are more likely to suffer from breast cancer as compared to African-American women. But surprisingly, African-American women are more likely to die of this cancer.
- Certain types of benign breast condition
Women who have been diagnosed with other types of benign breast conditions are at a higher risk or chance or suffering from breast cancer. Some of these conditions which raise the risk of breast cancer are fibrosis, mild hyperplasia, ductal ectasia, fat necrosis, benign tumors, radial scar etc.
- Menstrual periods
Those women who stated menstruating early (before the age of 12) or went through menopause relatively late are at a slightly higher risk of breast cancer. This risk is more because of a longer exposure of hormones estrogen and progesterone.
- Other risk factors
Drinking alcohol, being overweight, birth control pills, previous chest radiation, dense breast tissue etc. are some of the other risk factors of breast cancer.
