Breast Cancer History

Your family breast cancer history is important because it tells you if you have greater chances of getting this disease.

It has long been known that having a family history of breast cancer means that you have a higher risk of breast cancer than other individuals. If your mother, your sister or your maternal aunt has breast cancer, you have a higher risk of having the disease, too.

This is because there are abnormal genes that can be passed from mother to daughter that increase her risk of having breast cancer. The brca1 gene and the brca2 gene are two particular inherited genes a woman can inherit from her family members.

How Your Personal History Affects Breast Cancer Risk

To understand what causes breast cancer, you need to know what your risk of the disease is. For example, if you have ever had breast cancer in situ, either lobular breast cancer or ductal breast cancer, you have a much higher risk of a larger breast cancer in your life.

Another important thing in your breast cancer history is the number of female members in your family that have had breast cancer. If you have a first degree relative, like a daughter, sister or mother, you have a higher risk of breast cancer. If any of these women have had breast cancer early in age, you have a higher risk for breast cancer.

Young women with breast cancer have a higher likelihood of having the brca1 and bcra2 genes and you could have them, too. Second degree relatives, like maternal aunts, can contribute to breast cancer risk.

The age you are at menarche affects your having breast cancer. Young girls who menstruate before age 12 have a higher risk of having breast cancer. This is because estrogen is in their system for more years than older girls. The same holds true with having late onset of menopause. Later menopause means more estrogen feeding breast cancer cells for a longer period of time.

Your risk goes up if you have children late in life. The hormones in pregnancy are protective against breast cancer. If you have children early in life, you have a better chance of not having breast cancer.

Older women get breast cancer more than younger women. Women should get checked for signs of breast cancer after the age of forty unless they have a strong family history of the disease. Then they should get checked for signs of breast cancer after age 25 or 30 years.

Older women have had more estrogen feeding possible breast cancer for more years than younger women so they stand a higher risk of having the disease. The breast cancer facts show that most women who get breast cancer have it after age fifty.

Women who have breast cancer biopsies can have a risk of breast cancer. This is especially true if the biopsy showed atypical hyperplasia of the breast. Atypical hyperplasia of the breast is a risk of breast cancer itself. The risk is high with breast biopsies because of the need for the biopsy itself and not because of what the biopsy showed.

Women of African-American descent are at higher risk of dying from breast cancer. White women, however, have a greater risk of actually getting breast cancer. The risk of dying from breast cancer can have to do with these breast cancer facts:

• black women do not get as good care as white women do or
• there is something different about the breast cancer black women get.

Only research can tell these things and can make a difference.

You need to know these and other breast cancer facts if you have a higher risk of having breast cancer. You can get more breast cancer insight by studying breast cancer history on the Internet or in books on breast cancer. One thing is certain, you need to know the signs of breast cancer and see your doctor regularly.

You need to have regular and frequent mammograms to detect breast cancer. Your breast cancer awareness needs to be high and you need to be prepared that you might get breast cancer.

Maybe knowing some of the following breast cancer facts will help you understand the disease.

Breast cancer cells are cells that have begun to grow out of control. There are abnormal genes in the breast cancer cells that do not tell the cells when to stop growing. Breast cancer cells outlive normal breast cells and continue to divide when they don’t need to.

The DNA of breast cancer cells has become damaged. The damaged DNA can be inherited or can come because of the environment, such as smoking or having too much fat in your body. The abnormal cells grow unless they are removed by surgery or treated with chemotherapy, immunotherapy or radiation.

When the cancer cells are removed, men and women become survivors of breast cancer and can live a normal life.

When Should You Look For Signs of Breast Cancer?

All women should be checked after the age of forty. But if you are a women with one or more risk factors, particularly family history of breast cancer, you should be checked for signs of breast cancer much earlier.

Speak with your family practitioner, ob/gyn or internist about your personal risk factors for breast cancer. Your breast cancer history is important and you should know what it is.

Dr. Christine Traxler
2 12 2010