What Are the Risk Factors of Breast Cancer?
A risk factor is anything that increases a person’s chance of getting a disease. Different cancers have different risk factors. But having a cancer risk factor, or even several of them, does not necessarily mean that a person will get cancer. Some women with one or more breast cancer risk factors never develop it, while most women with breast cancer have no apparent risk factors. Significantly higher risk A woman with a history of cancer in one breast has a 3- to 4-fold increased risk of developing a new breast cancer, unrelated to the first one, in the other breast or in another part of the same breast. This is different than a recurrence of the previous breast cancer. Moderately higher risk • Getting older. Your risk for breast cancer increases as you age. About 77% of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year are over age 50, and almost half are age 65 and older. Consider this: In women 40 to 49 years of age, there is a one in 68 risk of developing breast cancer. In the 50 to 59
