Article Spotlight:
Breast Cancer Detection

The first sign of breast cancer usually shows up on a woman's mammogram before it can be felt or any other symptoms are present.

Risks for breast cancer include a family history, atypical hyperplasia, delaying pregnancy until after age 30 or never becoming pregnant, early menstruation (before age 12), late menopause (after age 55), current use or use in the last ten years of oral contraceptives, and daily consumption of alcohol.

Early detection of breast cancer, through monthly breast self-exam and particularly yearly mammography after age 40, offers the best chance for survival.

Ninety-six percent of women who find and treat breast cancer early will be cancer-free after five years.

Over eighty percent of breast lumps are not cancerous, but benign such as fibrocystic breast disease.

Oral contraceptives may cause a slight increase in breast cancer risk; however 10 years after discontinuing use of oral contraceptives the risk is the same as for women who never used the pill.

You are never too young to develop breast cancer! Breast Self-Exam should begin by the age of twenty.

Article Spotlight:
Quick Breast Cancer Facts

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer found in women in the United States. Here is a checklist from The American Cancer Society for you to consider: · Approximately 215,990 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the United States in 2004; about 1,450 new cases will be diagnosed in men.

An estimated 40,580 deaths from breast cancer (40,110 women, 470 men) will occur in 2004. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women, after lung cancer. · Breast cancer accounts for nearly one out of every three cancer diagnoses among women in the United States. Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed nonskin cancer in women.

The five-year survival rate for breast cancer is 97% among individuals whose cancer has not spread beyond the breast at the time of diagnosis. · For all women, breast cancer mortality rates declined by 2.3% per year from 1990-2000, with the larger decreases in younger (<50) women. Risk and Risk Factors.

Gender and age are the main risk factors. As age increases, so does the risk of developing breast cancer. In fact, 77% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer are 50 or older. · Other risk factors include family or personal history of breast cancer, history of certain types of benign breast disease, and lifetime exposure to estrogen.