6 Surprising Facts About Breast Cancer (PART 2) ~ Bloggerin Info

FACT:
4. A Mammogram Every Other Year May Be Sufficient

In 1997 the NCI recommended mammograms "every one to two years" for women in their 40s and older. Meanwhile, the American Cancer Society and other groups advised that these women have annual mammograms.

The university of Toronto's Baines argues: "If you're past 50 and concerned about breast cancer,your best bet is a mammogram every two years." Dr. Karla Kerlikowske at the University of California, San Fransisco, agrees. "Women between 50 and 69 years old should be screened every other year," she states. "Our studies find the same benefit in this age group wether a woman has a mammogram every year or every two years."

FACT:
5. A Lumpectomy May Be Your Best Treatment Option

The NCI says that a breast-sparing lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy is preferable to mastecomy 75 to 80 percent of the time. According to its most recent research, however, only 43 per cent of breast-cancer victims have lumpectomies.

Some doctors feel more comfortable with mastectomies because they've done it this way all their professional lives. Some believe that a mastectomy will rid the body of all risk cancer. It won't even. Even the most radical surgery leaves behind some breast tissue that can later become cancerous.

FACT:
6. Genes Aren't Destiny

If your mother had breast cancer, does this mean you carry a faulty gene for the disease? Maybe, but probably not. All of us---men and woman alike--are born with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (BRCA stands for "breast cancer"); mutations in either one of the genes are related to development of the disease.

The chance of a woman in the general population having a mutation in either gene is only one in 800. However, if your mother had breast cancer and also had an inherited mutation in BRCA1 or 2, you have a 50-50 chance of inheriting that mutation.

Yet even if you do carry such a mutation, you won't necessarily develop cancer. The BRCAs are basically breast-cancer susceptibility genes.

How can you tell if you're one who will? "Unfortunetally you can't. It's a statistical roulette game," notes Dr. Bernadine Healy, dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health at Ohio State University. Until further research is completed, Healy cautions that "medical fortunetellers are reading a cloudy crystall ball" when they try to predict who will develop breast cancer and who won't.She worries about a growing trend among genetically susceptible women: more and more are deciding to have healthy breasts removed "just to play it safe."Such drastic measures, she notes, are unjustified given the "primitive" level of medical knowledge about these genes.

The good news is that even when women have an inheritad risk of developing breast cancer, their odds of dying from it are no higher than those of any other woman diagnosed with breast cancer.

Five Easy Ways to Lower Your Risk

WHILE we're still a long way from beating this deadly disease, here's what's important for you to know about preventing breast cancer:

1. Exercise regularly.

A review of research, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, noted that exercise reduced breast cancer risk both before and after menopause by as much as 60 per cent. A Norwegian study 25,624 women found that those who exercised at least four hours a week---even just walking---reduced their breast-cancer risk by 37 per cent. Working at a job that involved walking, lifting or doing heavy manual labor also slashed breast-cancer rates.

2. Watch your weight

One reason exercise may prevent breast cancer is that keeps your weight down. A harvard University study showed that women who gained 44 to 55 pounds after age 18 had almost double the risk of developing breast cancer following menopause,compared with those who had gained only a few pounds.

3. Don't drink too much alcohol

Even moderate drinking may be too much. Your risk of breast cancer rises 11 per cent if you regularly have one drink a day, 24 per cent with two drinks and 40 per cent with more than two,according to research by Lenore Kohlmeier, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. You needn't quit, though. Limit yourself to three drinks a week.

4. Get enough sunshine

The latest word on vitamin is that antioxidants (particularly C and beta carotene) don't prevent breast cancer. But vitamin D may. This might explain why women in the American South get breast cancer less often than those in the Northeast, according to a study by Esther John at Northern California Cancer Center. Southern women get more sunshine, needed by the skin to manufacture vitamin D. "Ten to fifteen minutes of exposure a day is sufficient for most of us to get adequate levels of vitamin D," John says. "But we still don't know how much D or sunlight is needed to prevent breast cancer."

5. Take Vitamin D

Women who consumed 200 international units (IUs) a day (the amount in two cups of vitamin-D-fortified milk) lowered their breast-cancer risk by about 30 per cent. At least 200 IUs daily are recommended for those age 50 and younger ;400 to 600 IUs for those older than 50.