With so many confusing and alarming reports about breast cancer, it’s tough to figure out what your risk really is. We asked top experts to help explain the latest facts behind the headlines – and discovered some very reassuring news.
With so many confusing and alarming reports about breast cancer, it’s tough to figure out what your risk really is. We asked top experts to help explain the latest facts behind the headlines – and discovered some very reassuring news.
Having the newest information about breast cancer is empowering.
Self-exams aren’t worth doing.
BREAK IT DOWN: Using two fingers and moving in a circular pattern to check your breasts for lumps and other changes once a month is no longer officially recommended. “Self-exams weren’t getting patients diagnosed any earlier, which is key to reducing breast cancer mortality,” says Dr Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Instead, the focus has shifted to breast health awareness, she says. “You should know what’s normal for you – the symmetry of your breasts, what the skin and nipples look like, and what they feel like,” Dr Mac Gregor says. “If you know that, you’ll know if there’s something abnormal, like lesions or lumps.”
You need to rethink your diet.
Antiperspirants are risky.
Alcohol seriously ups your odds.
The best treatment for breast cancer is chemotherapy.
BREAK IT DOWN: More women with breast cancer can skip this once-standard treatment, according to a new study. “Until now, we’ve known that women with hormonally driven breast cancer who are classified as low-risk didn’t need chemotherapy, while women who were high-risk did. We weren’t sure about the intermediates. But a new trial called TAILORx found that most intermediates also got no significant benefit from chemotherapy,” Dr Hamilton shares. “The results will likely save 60,000 patients a year from receiving chemo.” That means avoiding many side effects, such as damage to heart and lung cells, hair loss and nausea. It’s a big win for personalised medicine, she says. “We’re constantly developing new therapies, and now we’re getting better at determining who needs exactly which treatments.”
Having dense breasts is a big problem.
BREAK IT DOWN: If you have dense breasts, meaning they have more fibrous and glandular tissue and less fatty tissue, you won’t know it until you get a mammogram. If your physician doesn’t broach the subject when discussing the results with you at your next appointment, just ask. It’s important knowledge to have because research suggests that women with dense breasts are up to six times more at risk of developing breast cancer in their lifetime. The disease is also harder to spot in dense breast tissue, says Dr Elizabeth Morris, a Breast Cancer Research Foundation investigator and the chief of the Breast Imaging Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York . That’s why some women get a second screening, like a breast ultrasound or an MRI. “But not all women with dense breasts need additional tests – only those with extremely dense breasts or certain patterns of density,” Dr Morris says. Bottom line: It’s an individual decision your doctor will help you make.
