Risk factors include:

  • Being female
  • Early menarchy
  • Late menopause
  • Children not being born until after age 30
  • Family history


    Major risk factors:
  • Previous breast cancer
  • Family history (more than one family member)
  • A pre-menopausal 1st degree relative, or a male
  • atypical ductal hyperplasia & atypical lobula hyperplasia
History
% of total breast cancer
Lifetime risk of patient
Sporatic
70-80%
3%
Familial
15-20%
15-30%
Hereditary
5-10%
50-60%
Genetic
1-10%
80-90%

Decreasing the risk of breast cancer:

  • Healthy diet - lots of green leafy vegetables
  • Vitamin E succinate
  • Flaxseed
  • Excercise - (breast cancer risk has been shown to decrease by 40% in women who excercised 3 times weekly from teens into adulthood.)
  • Tamoxifen - decreased risk by 50%
  • Prophylactic Mastectomy - decreased risk by 99.5%