Breast Cancer Causes

Breast cancer causes are still unknown

The exact breast cancer causes are unclear. Doctors know that breast cancer happens when the DNA inside the breast cells causes the cells to grow out of control. There are certain gene mutations that trigger the uncontrolled breast cancer cells to grow. Cancer can spread from the breast to the lymph nodes in the axilla (arm pit) and then to the lungs, brain, bone, the other breast and liver.

There are some things we do know. We know the risk factors a person experiences can lead to breast cancer. Doctors know that what causes breast cancer can be a variety of things. Breast cancer is most common in women, who have more breast tissue than men. Breast cancer causes include what stimulates the breast tissue to grow and develop.

While the cause of breast cancer is unknown, risk factors show who is most likely to develop the disease.

A risk factor can be a lifestyle choice, a genetic factor or a medical condition that leads to the development of cancer in only some people with the risk factor. In other words, not everyone with the risk factor will develop breast cancer.

• Lifestyle choices are behaviors a person does that triggers them to potentially develop breast cancer.
• Genetic risk factors come from your relatives who might have or have had cancer in the past
• Medical conditions can cause you to take certain medications that can trigger breast cancer

Some risk factors cannot be changed.

You cannot change your gender. If you are a woman, you have a hundred times greater chance of having breast cancer than a man. As you get older, your chance of getting breast cancer goes up. Two-thirds of all women with breast cancer are over the age of 55 when they are diagnosed.

Breast cancer causes are related to your family. There are two genes, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are related to having breast cancer. If you inherited one of those two genes from your family members, you have an 80 percent chance of developing breast cancer sometime in your life. There are other unknown genes that are related to breast cancer as well.

Your female relatives can be a risk factor for getting breast cancer. If you have a mother, sister or daughter with breast cancer, you have twice the chance of getting the disease, too. If you have had breast cancer in one breast, you have a greater chance of getting breast cancer in the other one. If you are white, you have a greater chance of getting breast cancer than if you were African-American. Hispanic, American Indian and Asian women do not get breast cancer as often

All of these could be risk factors for you:
If you have dense breasts, you have more glands in the breasts that can develop cancer. Doctors have a harder time seeing these kinds of breast cancers using a mammogram. Sometimes, they must do an MRI to detect breast cancer.

• If you had your first menstrual period before age 12 or go through menopause after age 55, you have a greater chance of developing breast cancer.
• If you have had radiation to your chest for a different cancer in your lifetime, you have a greater chance of getting breast cancer.

Some causes of breast cancer are lifestyle issues.

You have a higher risk of developing breast cancer if...

• you have never had children or had them late in life
• you have used birth control pills at a later age (the risk returns to normal after not using them for ten years).
• you are on post-menopausal hormone therapy. Estrogen alone has less of a risk, but progesterone and estrogen treatments heighten that risk. Your risk returns to normal after five years of not taking those hormones.
• you drink alcohol, especially 2-5 drinks every day.
• you are overweight, especially if you became so as an adult, and have a diet high in fat.
• you do not exercise.

You have a lower risk of developing breast cancer if...

• you have had many pregnancies.
• you have breastfed, especially for a total of 18-24 months.
• you exercise between an hour and fifteen minutes to two and a half hours a week. (Studies have shown that can lower your risk by 18 percent.) Doctors believe exercising for just an hour a day, five times a week will lower your breast cancer risk.

Risk factors for breast cancer are the clues to finding what causes breast cancer. Doctors are working to figure out the exact causes of the condition. Once we know the causes, we can create better treatments and diagnose people earlier.