Prevention of breast cancer is always the fundamental thing to look on in cancer research instead of finding a way for treatment. Most of the practices on breast cancer prevention are only for women with moderate to high breast cancer risk. There are still no guidelines for the prevention of breast cancer for women with average risk. However, how can we identify the group of women at known risk in general population? Thus, it is important for us to know whether we are in risk of breast cancer by knowing the risk factors and do the early detection steps frequently.
Breast Cancer Prevention in General
Generally, we can do some prevention steps in our daily life no matter we are in risk or not. Leading a healthy lifestyle is an essential prevention step for all the cancer.
1. It is advised that women need to maintain a healthy body weight throughout their daily life without consuming high fat food.
2. Women have to do some regular physical activities such as jogging, swimming and so on.
3. Breastfeeding is a good practice to prevent the breast cancer.
4. Consume diets that rich in grains, fruits and vegetables. Less meat in diet will be too good to be practiced.
5. Moderate use of alcoholic beverages. It is too good not to consume the alcoholic beverages at all.
6. Minimize yourself from the exposure to exogenous hormones.
7. Reduce the sugars in the diet.
Breast Cancer Prevention for Women with Moderate to High Risk
There are several ways for the prevention of breast cancer in women at significantly increased risk. Who are those with moderate to high risk in breast cancer?
1. Women who are the carriers of BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation.
2. Women with multiple affected relative breast cancer presenting at early age.
3. Women with family history of breast cancer and so on.
There are many options for the women in risk to prevent from breast cancer. Most of the strategies are to remove the tissue which may become cancerous and decrease the endogenous hormone exposure. The most common are bilateral prophylactic mastectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. These two methods are considered highly effective for risk reduction. Both methods are the choices for BRCA mutation carriers. To really reduce the breast cancer risk, the BRCA carriers are recommended to undergo Bilateral Salpingo-oophorectomy by age 35-40 years or after childbearing is completed.
In conclusion, it is important for us to recognize the group of women with high risk or moderate risk who will ultimately develop breast cancers. There are many risk assessment can be done through the cancer research. This will reduce the need for many women to unnecessarily undergo aggressive surgery.
