WOMEN WITH EARLY STAGE BREAST CANCER MAY NOT NEED CHEMOTHERAPY


Catching cancer early results in less invasive surgery


MAMMOGRAMS TODAY RESULT IN VERY LOW


EXPOSURE TO RADIATION


“I’d get the test if I found a lump.” ACOG encourages women to promptly have their doctor check out any breast changes they notice, from lumps in the breast or underarm to swelling, dimpling, breast pain, redness or thickening of the nipple or breast skin, or anything else that looks or feels different. It’s also crucial to realize that in the early stages, breast cancer may not cause any symptoms. During your annual ob-gyn


checkup, alert your doctor to any family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and other types of cancer in close relatives, such as your siblings, parents, or grandparents. If your family history puts you at a significantly higher than usual risk for breast cancer, your doctor may advise enhanced breast cancer screening beyond standard mammography—such as the addition of MRI imaging or more frequent clinical breast exams— or may recommend that you be tested for BRCA gene mutations.


African American women have


a higher rate of premenopausal breast cancer compared with other women, and it’s typically more aggressive. For this reason, black women may want to be especially vigilant about breast cancer screening beginning at age 40. Other factors that can boost


the threat of breast cancer include dense breasts, obesity, a couch potato lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption, going through puberty before age 12 or menopause after age 55, never having given birth or having your first child after age 35, never having breastfed, and use of some types of hormone therapy. And if you smoke, here’s yet another reason to quit: A Harvard study of more than 110,000 women found that female smokers face an increased threat of breast cancer, especially if they started the habit at a young age. The longer and more heavily the women smoked, the more their breast cancer danger rose. Even if you don’t have any of


these risk factors, it’s still important to discuss the pros and cons of screening with your doctor so you can make the screening choice that’s right for you. A common misconception is that breast cancer mainly strikes women with a family history of the disease. “Although hereditary factors predispose some women to develop breast cancer, 80 percent of women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease,” says Joseph. “The No. 1 risk factor is increasing age.” And while mammography isn’t


a perfect test, he adds, “I have had many patients whose breast cancer was detected through mammograms long before they could feel anything, and these women are now doing well 10, 15, or even 20 years later. There’s some anxiety about false positives, but most women don’t get nearly as upset about callbacks as they did 20 years ago, because they’re better informed about the screening process and the powerful evidence that this test can save lives.”


FALL / WINTER 2011 pause 25


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