Breast Cancer Risk Factors

Breast cancer risk factors are anything that has the ability to increase the chance of getting any particular disease, including breast cancer. Of course, we know that different cancers have different risk factors, along with different diseases. The important thing to know is just because a risk factor is present does not mean the disease is.

A breast cancer risk can vary, with factors such as age and race not being able to be controlled or changed, even though breast cancer risks among Asian women who live in the United States are higher than in their home countries. But others like certain environments can be, by simply moving or changing things that can be changed. Other risk factors for breast cancer involve personal choices—smoking, diet, lifestyles, or drinking.

Having a breast cancer risk assessment is a tool designed by specific scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), along with the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) in order to demonstrate a woman's risk of invasive breast cancer development. The risk factors of breast cancer that is invasive should not be used if the diagnosis has already been made in regard to lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). But for women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutated genes, it is a successful tool.

Risks for breast cancer that are not accounted for by the breast cancer risk assessment tool are previous treatments of radiation therapy to the chest with those who have been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, or for those who have recently migrated from a specific region with low breast cancer rates. These regions may include areas such as rural China, as the tool is made for the general population in the United States.

The actual risk of breast cancer depends on many factors—age, environment, race, previous medical history, previous cancer history in the family, and many others. The breast cancer risk assessment tool asks questions such as the family medical history regarding cancer, the age of the patient, when did she first begin her menstrual cycle, age of giving birth to her first live child, family cancer history, any breast biopsy and related information, and what is her race? More detailed breast cancer risk calculator can be used with similar but more detailed questions. More information about breast cancer risk factors can be found under breast cancer risk in perspective, risk factors breast cancer, and underweight breast cancer risk.