Early detection of breast cancer offers women the best possible chance for optimal treatment. As with many cancers, breast cancer is more easily managed and treated when it is still small. To ensure early detection of breast cancer, women should educate themselves about appropriate screening and breast health care.
Identifying the early signs of breast cancer can significantly increase your chances of recovery and cure from this disease. Though many breast cancers are detectable only through a mammogram or other imaging studies, a significant number of early diagnoses have come as the result of patients recognizing one or more common breast cancer signs.
Numerous advancements in breast cancer therapies and interventions have helped to improve outcomes and quality-of-life for countless women. Over the past seven years, growing understanding of breast cancer biology has helped to continue this trend. The introduction of genomic testing tools, such as the Breast Cancer Index, now allow us to predict long-term prognoses for breast cancer patients better than ever before.
Over the next several decades, the incidence of breast cancer is expected to rise. We will also witness shifting patterns regarding the types of breast cancer diagnosed and ages of women diagnosed. As these changes occur, it is critical for breast cancer treatment teams to consider each case individually.
There are steps all women can take to reduce their chances of developing breast cancer.
It is not possible to completely eliminate your chances for developing breast cancer, but there are steps you can take to reduce risk. Some risk factors, like age and genetics, cannot be changed. However, certain lifestyle choices can help you to prevent breast cancer and there are steps you can take to minimize risk associated with factors you have no control over.
There are steps you can take to help prevent cancer. Many lifestyle choices we make can increase or decrease our risk. However, a recent survey suggests many patients do not understand how these choices affect their chances for developing cancer.
It’s virtually impossible to avoid the blush shade of pink in the month of October when we celebrate National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
A color long associated with little girls, princesses and all things light and airy is now ubiquitous, standing in as a shade that symbolizes the fight against breast cancer and an awareness of a disease once only spoken of in hushed tones.
The availability of molecular information on breast cancer genomics is rapidly expanding. Patients who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer can easily be overwhelmed by volumes of information in a very short period of time. The good news is that all of the information available is meant to guide personal decisions for cancer management so that we use biology and science for real-life choices. Knowledge is power.
Genetics and family health history play an intricate, if not yet fully understood, role in breast cancer risk.
Do you have a family history of breast cancer? Research has shown women with a family history of breast cancer have a higher risk for diagnosis than women with no family history of breast cancer.