Breast Cancer Risk Factors

In the case of breast cancer, risk factors for the disease include such things as being over 60, having a family history of the disease, and experiencing certain changes in breast tissue. Other risk factors for breast cancer include being overweight or obese after menopause, a lack of physical activity, and excessive consumption of alcohol. It's important to remember that women with breast cancer risk factors will not necessarily get the disease. And women who have no risk factors for breast cancer can still get the disease.

 

Breast Cancer Risk Factors: An Introduction

In most cases, doctors do not know the exact cause or causes of breast cancer. Doctors often cannot explain why one woman develops breast cancer and another does not.
 
They do know that bumping, bruising, or touching the breast does not cause cancer. And breast cancer is not contagious. You cannot "catch" it from another person.
 
Breast cancer research has shown that women with certain breast cancer risk factors are more likely than others to develop breast cancer. A risk factor is something that may increase the chance of developing a disease. Anything that decreases a person's chance of developing a disease is called a protective factor. Breast cancer prevention involves avoiding the risk factors and increasing the protective factors that can be controlled so that the chances of developing cancer decrease.
 

Specific Breast Cancer Risk Factors

Studies have identified the following breast cancer risk factors:
 
  • Age (most cases of breast cancer occur in women over 60)
  • Personal history of breast cancer
  • Family history
  • Certain breast changes
  • Gene changes
  • Reproductive and menstrual history
  • Race (Caucasian women are at greater risk than women of other races)
  • Radiation to the chest
  • Breast density
  • Taking DES (diethylstilbestrol -- a synthetic estrogen)
  • Being overweight or obese (see BMI Calculator to check your weight status)
  • Lack of physical activity
  • Excessive consumption of alcohol.
     
(Breast Cancer Risk Factors Continued: Page 2)
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Written by/reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD