The percentage chance for a woman to develop breast cancer has risen in the last sixty years. An adult woman in the 1940s only had a five percent chance of getting breast cancer; today’s women have a thirteen percent chance of getting it. That means that the risk has more than doubled in the past sixty years, and now, one in nine women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime.

No one knows conclusively why some women get breast cancer while others do not. Doctors who have studied it for years are no closer to understanding the causes. However, because of the increasing awareness of breast cancer and the increased funding of medical research, doctors may know more soon.

Both men and woman can develop breast cancer, although women are one hundred times more likely to get it than men. Not all breast cancers are dangerous. Many breast cancers are not malignant and can be removed by surgery. If a malignancy is discovered, there are now many treatments available to combat it.

Doctors who have researched breast cancer over the past decades have found that there are certain criteria which make it more likely that a woman will develop breast cancer. These criteria are called risk factors. There are many factors which can influence a woman’s or a man’s risk of getting breast cancer. Having one or more risk factors does not necessarily mean that someone will get breast cancer. Some women with one or several breast cancer risk factors never develop it, while some women with breast cancer have no apparent risk factors. Even if a woman develops cancer there is no way to prove that any of the risk factors were the actual causes of her breast cancer.

There are risk factors over which women have no control such as genetics, personal history, age, family history, beginning menstruation before the age of twelve, beginning menopause after the age of fifty-five, and the diagnosis of a previous cancer not related to breast cancer. Other smaller risk factors are obesity, smoking, drinking alcohol, taking hormone replacement drugs and having a first child late in life.

The highest risk factor correlation with developing breast cancer is genetics. If woman has either of two familial breast cancer genes called BRCA1 or BRCA2, they are at a higher risk. Women with this inherited alteration have up to an eighty percent chance of developing breast cancer during their lifetime.

The second highest risk of developing breast cancer is a personal history of breast cancer; this greatly increases the likelihood of getting it again. Also, women who have had some other form of cancer, like ovarian cancer, have a slightly higher risk of getting breast cancer.

Another high risk factor for developing breast cancer is if a previous HYPERLINK “http://women.webmd.com/Women-Medical-Reference/Breast-Biopsy” breast biopsy resulted in atypical hyperplasia. This increases a woman’s breast cancer risk by four to five times more than other women.

As a woman gets older, her risk of breast cancer increases with her age. Women in their twenties have only a 0.3% chance of developing breast cancer; women in their thirties have a 0.4% chance; women in their forties have a 1.4% chance; women in their fifties have a 2.6% chance; and women in their sixties have a 3.6% chance of developing breast cancer.

If a woman has a first degree relative (mother, sister of daughter) who has had breast cancer, her chances of getting breast cancer are double those who have no family history of it.

If a woman has one or all of these risk factors it still does not mean she will get breast cancer, but it means that she should be more diligent about checking for lumps and getting doctor supervised screenings for breast cancer.

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