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Monday, May 21, 2007

A Few Common Myths About Breast Cancer

Myth: If you detect a painful lump in your breast, there is no need for concern, as it is not cancerous.

Pain is very rarely the only indication of breast cancer. However only 10 percent of breast cancers are linked with pain. If an individual complains of pain in the breast and a self-examination test and a mammogram do not show any abnormality the likelihood of breast cancer is minimal.

Myth: Radiation therapy is a painful process.

A few patients experience a slight tingling or warming sensation in the particular area that is being treated but there is no pain. Prolonged radiation therapy may cause the breast to have a burning sensation, to become dry, to become sore and itchy.

Myth: One in every eight women will get breast cancer.

These statistics are based over an individual's lifetime up to an age of eighty five or ninety five and not on a per year estimate. If you take into account at any given point one woman in every eight women, it does not mean that she will have breast cancer. What it means is that if all women were to live up to an age of 85 years, one woman out of eight would get the disease during her life. Studies have shown that this rate is quickly rising, as thirty years ago it was one woman in every twenty women.

Myth: Women with small breasts will not get cancer.

Breast size is not a significant risk factor for breast cancer. A woman having smaller breasts will have smaller amount of breast tissue, but this does not mean that she will not be able to develop the disease.

Myth: If you are diagnosed with breast cancer and you have a positive outlook on life it will prolong your life.

There is no such evidence to prove that having a positive outlook on life will increase your chances of survival if you are having breast cancer. Of course thinking positive will help you and your family members to cope better with the situation, but then again feeling sad or depressed from time to time is only natural in the light of things.

Myth: Mastectomy or removal of the breast that is affected ensures the elimination of breast cancer forever.

Mastectomy does not in any way ensure that the cancer will not recur. Sometimes even though mastectomy has been performed, the chances are there that the cancer may have spread to other parts of the body and to the lymph nodes. Some individuals who have undergone mastectomy also undergo removal of the lymph nodes in the underarm as a precautionary method.

Myth: The chances are you will not get breast cancer if it doesn't run in your family.

This is not the case, every woman is at risk. Studies have shown that 80 percent of women who end up with breast cancer have never had a family history of it. The ageing process is the single biggest risk factor of breast cancer. Women with a family history of breast cancer, the chances that you might get the disease may be a little elevated or may be a lot elevated or sometimes not at all.