Breast Cancer Risk Factor
What Can I Do To Reduce the Risk?
Select Items
Age
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for screening.
See Recommended screening tests for women of different
ages in the blue area above to find out more.
Personal history of breast cancer
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for follow-up
visits.
Family history of breast cancer
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for screening.
Certain breast changes
See your doctor about a breast change
when you have:
A lump in or near your breast or under your arm
Thick or firm tissue in or near your breast or under
your arm
Nipple discharge or tenderness
A nipple pulled back (inverted) into the breast
Itching or skin changes such as redness, scales, dimples,
or puckers
A change in breast size or shape.
Genetic alterations
There are three things you can do.
You can consider genetic testing. It’s important
to think about the advantages and disadvantages of testing.
See Genetics and breast cancer in Step
2 to find our more.
You may choose to be monitored more closely for any
sign of cancer. This may include more frequent mammograms,
breast exams by your doctor, breast self-exams, and an
ultrasound exam of the ovaries.
You may choose to join a research study that is looking
at ways to reduce cancer risk. This may entail changing
your diet, reducing the amount of alcohol you drink,
or trying new drugs to reduce the risk of cancer.
Menstrual history
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for screening.
Radiation therapy to the chest
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for screening.
Breast density
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for screening
if you are age 45 or older and have at least 75 percent
dense tissue on a mammogram.
DES (diethylstilbestrol)
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for screening
and follow-up. If your daughter was exposed to DES because
you received it when you were pregnant, she also should
follow the doctor’s screening guidelines. More studies
are needed to see if DES will affect the breast cancer
risk for children of women who took it.
Reproductive history
Follow your doctor’s recommendations for screening.
Hormone use (such as estrogen and progestin)
If you are
using menopausal hormones
(also called hormone replacement therapy), you should
talk to your health care provider about whether the advantages
to continuing to use them outweigh the disadvantages in
your case. Every woman is different.
Obesity after menopause
This one is complex. Before menopause, if you are obese
you have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than
do women of a healthy weight. After menopause, if you are
obese your risk
of developing breast cancer
is 1.5 times the risk of women of a healthy
weight. But this risk applies only if you do not use menopausal
hormones. Among women who use menopausal hormones, there
is no significant difference in breast cancer risk between
obese women and women of a healthy weight.
To date, there have been no controlled clinical trials
to determine whether avoiding weight gain decreases the
risk of cancer. However, many observational studies have
shown that avoiding weight gain lowers the risk of postmenopausal
breast cancer. There is insufficient evidence that intentional
weight loss will affect cancer risk for any cancer.
Physical inactivity
If you are a postmenopausal woman of normal
weight, the Women’s Health Initiative clinical trial
found that increased physical activity (walking about 30
minutes per day) was associated with a 37 percent decrease
in risk. This protective effect of physical activity was
not found among overweight or obese women. You may want to
consider increasing your physical activity for its overall
health benefits. Talk to your doctor.
Alcoholic beverages
If you drink two or more drinks a day, your risk
of getting breast cancer increases by about 25 percent. (A drink
is defined as 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine,
or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor.) You may want to talk to
your doctor about cutting
down on alcoholic beverages.
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