What is breast cancer?

Breast cancer is caused by the abnormal or uncontrollable growth of breast cells. It has the potential to also spread to other parts of the body. While cancer is almost always caused by an abnormal gene the chances of inheriting it from your mother or father is only 5 to 10 percent. The genetic abnormalities that occur as a result of the ageing process and other factors however cause 90 percent of the breast cancers.

. Who is affected by breast cancer?

Women are the most affected by the commonest cancer that is breast cancer. 216,000 new cases of invasive cancer and 59,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in the USA in 2004.

Every woman at some point in her life is at risk from breast cancer. Each woman will have different risk factors.

. The period in your life when you gain weight also affects the risk of breast cancer.

After menopause, a woman who is overweight is at greater risk from breast cancer when compared to a woman of average weight. Being overweight also increases the risk of the disease coming back in women who have had it earlier.

Studies also show that the risk factor is greater for women who gain a significant amount of weight as an adult when compared with women who maintained more or less the same weight. Studies also show that gaining weight after menopause also increases the risk of breast cancer. Therefore maintaining a healthy weight as you advance in age will help minimize your risk of breast cancer.

. Having ovarian cysts means your chances of getting breast cancer are low.

Benign ovarian cysts, generally a result of hormonal imbalance, cause several problems such as irregular menstrual cycles and infertility and were originally thought to be linked with a higher risk of breast cancer. Research has shown however that the opposite is true, that is, women with ovarian cysts are less likely to get breast cancer. The reason for this association is still not clear.

. Taking the contraceptive pill may increase your risk of getting breast cancer.

According to research, it is shown that taking the contraceptive pill slightly increases your risk of getting breast cancer. For women who are most at risk from developing breast cancer, that is, women who have given birth and who have used the pill for a period of 4 years before they became pregnant for the first time, the absolute risk is minimal.

There are certain benefits too from taking contraceptive pills. They are that it improves bone mineral density, it decreases the chances of an individual getting endometrial and ovarian cancer and it relieves menstrual disorders, ovarian cysts and pelvic inflammatory disease.