Women and Breast Cancer
18
Excluding cancers of the skin, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, accounting for slightly more than 1 in every 4 cancers diagnosed in American women. After lung cancer, breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women. The incidence of breast cancer has increased over the past decade, but breast cancer deaths have declined. This is probably because of earlier cancer detection, improved treatment, and decreased use of menopausal hormone therapy in older women. It's important to recognize that most breast lumps-75-80%-are not cancerous. Many disappear on their own. Of lumps that are surgically removed for diagnostic purposes, 80% prove to be benign. Assessing the risk of getting breast cancer is a complex, imprecise, and evolving science. However, there are three known factors that overwhelmingly influence a woman's risk of developing a solid tumor that invades her breast tissue: age, genetic makeup, and lifetime exposure to estrogen. Simply being a woman who is aging increases the risk of developing breast cancer, with the majority of cases occurring in women aged 60 and older.