Family History of Breast Cancer - A New Perspective

It has always been stated that women with a family history of breast cancer are at greater risk. Up until now, there has been no study large enough to determine this statistic.

A recent article published the THE LANCET (http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol358/... the collaborative analysis from 52 epidemiological studies which included 58, 209 women with breast disease and 101,986 women who were cancer free.

Only 12% of the breast cancer patients reported a first-degree relative with a history of breast cancer. In the control group (those who did NOT have cancer), 7% had a relative with breast cancer history. A first degree relative is a mother, sister and/or daughter. The study methods included data collection from both groups and analysis. Risk ratio for breast cancer (what are your odds of getting the disease) were calculated through logistic regression. The study took into account the following factors: age, menopause status, number of sisters, parity (# of pregnancies), age when you had first child.

The results of this study show that 8 out of 9 women who develop breast cancer do not have a first degree relative affected. What this means is that you still have a greater risk to develop breast cancer if you have a first-degree relative with a history of the disease, but this risk is only 1.7% greater than women with no family history, up to the age of 50. That means that most women with a breast cancer relative will not develop the disease. The most cases of breast cancer are still found past age 50. So even if you have a relative, you might or might not develop breast cancer after age 50, the same as women without a family history.

What does this study mean for you? If you have relatives with breast cancer, it will hopefully ease your mind a bit. Yes, you are at a slightly greater risk, but it is not as bad as originally thought. If you have no history of breast cancer in your family, good for you!

For all of you, you should be doing monthly breast self-exams after age 20, getting an annual PAP smear and having an annual mammogram past age 40, unless some circumstance indicates that you should have it earlier. (Example: in families with a first-degree relative with breast cancer, it is generally accepted practice to have your baseline mammogram 10 years prior to the age of diagnosis of your relative. To put it in lay terms, I was 47 when I was diagnosed. According to current practice, my daughter should begin mammos at age 37, rather than the standard baseline age of 40)

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