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Senior Health & Medicine
Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Information Updated by
Cancer Institute
Breast Cancer Risk
Assessment Tool available online
May 8, 2006 – The National Cancer Institute has
recently updated its Web page on "Estimating Breast Cancer Risk," which
is a question-and-answer dialogue about the risk of most frequently
diagnosed non-skin cancer in American women and also promotes the use of
their online Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. An estimated 213,000
American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, many of
them senior citizens, since the risk of breast cancer increases as women
get older.
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The Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool estimates a
woman's risk of developing breast cancer for two time periods: over the
next five years and for her lifetime.
The NCI cautions, however, that the tool "was
designed for use by health professionals." NCI says that women who use
the tool and are not health professionals should discuss the results and
their personal risk of breast cancer with their doctor.
The Web tool is a computer program that was
developed by scientists at the National Cancer Institute and the
National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) to assist
health care providers in discussing breast cancer risk and tamoxifen
with their female patients.
The tool allows one to project a woman's individual
estimate of breast cancer risk over a 5-year period of time and over her
lifetime and compares the woman's risk calculation with the average risk
for a woman of the same age.
The tool compares these risks (given as a
percentage) to those of a woman of the same age with NO risk factors
other than her age, and with the risk of women who were eligible to
participate in the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial.
Information about the risks and benefits of taking
tamoxifen are also included. The Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool can
be found at the following link: http://bcra.nci.nih.gov/brc/
The risk factors included in the tool are: personal
history of breast abnormalities, current age, age at first menstrual
period, age at first live birth, breast cancer history of close
relatives, whether a woman has had a breast biopsy, and race.
● Personal history of breast abnormalities. Two
breast tissue abnormalities - ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and
lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) - are associated with increased risk
for developing an invasive breast cancer.
● Age. The risk of developing breast cancer
increases with age. The majority of breast cancer cases occur in women
older than age 50.
● Age at menarche (first menstrual period).
Women who had their first menstrual period before age 12 have a slightly
increased risk of breast cancer.
● Age at first live birth. Women who had their
first full-term pregnancy after age 30 and women who have never borne a
child have a greater risk of developing breast cancer.
● Breast cancer among first-degree relatives
(sisters, mother, daughters). Having one or more first-degree blood
relatives who have been diagnosed with breast cancer increases a woman's
chances of developing this disease.
● Breast biopsies. Women who have had breast
biopsies have an increased risk of breast cancer, especially if the
biopsy showed a change in breast tissue known as atypical hyperplasia.
These women are at increased risk because of whatever prompted the
biopsies, NOT because of the biopsies themselves.
● Race. White women have greater risk of
developing breast cancer than Black women (although Black women
diagnosed with breast cancer are more likely to die of the disease).
The Cancer Institute cautions that the Breast
Cancer Risk Assessment Tool gives an estimated risk. "It is not accurate
for women who are younger than age 20, who have already had a diagnosis
of breast cancer or who are known to have specific alterations in breast
cancer susceptibility genes (BRCA1 or BRCA2)," the agency says.
"There is also some doubt about whether women from
other countries will have accurate results because the tool is based on
U.S. women."
Links:
●
Estimating Breast Cancer Risk – National Cancer Institute
●
Beast Cancer Assessment Tool
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