Here's a good article on assessing your risk of breast cancer, especially timely with the new guidelines for mammograms:
Breast Cancer Risk Is Not So Easy to Figure Out
Unfortunately, most of the ways of calculating risk are good for populations, but not so good for figuring out any individual woman's risk.
Another story out of San Antonio (where the breast cancer oncologists, including mine, are meeting right now) about how mixing up the chemo drugs can keep them working longer. This particular study looked at women with estrogen-positive cancers whose cancers had become resistant to standard chemotherapy.
New Approach to Re-Sensitizing Breast Cancer
And yet another study that suggests limiting alcohol consumption if you are trying to keep breast cancer from coming back.
This study found that moderate to heavy alcohol consumption, particularly in post-menopausal or overweight women, was linked to breast cancer recurrence. The authors recommend limiting alcohol to less than three drinks per week.
Alcohol and Breast Cancer Recurrence
Remember, however, that the risk of recurrence is high for all women who have had one bout of breast cancer. So whatever you can do to reduce your risk is probably worth doing.
Most recurrences do happen within the first few years after your first bout of breast cancer (mine was within the first year), and the five-year marker doesn't give any real protection, unfortunately. I know many women who went 10 years or more in remission before their breast cancer came back.
The lifetime risk of breast cancer recurring is probably something like 30 to 40 percent, higher than most people think.
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@ Jeanne Sather 2009.
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