Researchers have recently identified gene variations which may cause breast cancer. The study was done among Swedish and Finnish women. The scientists found 121 variations in the women’s DNA. According to them estrogen production is linked to breast cancer. So drugs are prescribed to lower the estrogen levels. Individually, the variations effect is small. However, woman having combination of these variations will have a higher risk of breast cancer. Breast cancer genes include BRCA1, BRCA2, ATM, and P53, among others.
It is a fact that woman who have late menopause or have started menstruating early in life have a higher susceptibility of breast cancer. The results have to be further validated. However, the sample size is large and the outcomes reliable.
It has been discovered that woman who underwent prophylactic mastectomy (surgery to remove breasts) or salpingo-oophorectomy (surgical removal of fallopian tubes and ovaries) had a decreased risk of having breast cancer. No woman who underwent mastectomy had breast cancer in the three years of follow-up. However, 7% of women who did not undergo mastectomy were diagnosed with breast cancer.
Women undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have found to be more prone to breast cancer than other women. The thinner the women at menopause when they go in for HRT, the greater the risk of breast cancer.
Compared to women who did not undergo HRT, women who had fifteen or more years of estrogen therapy, the latter had greater breast cancer risk of 19%. Women who use combination therapy for fifteen plus years had an increased breast cancer risk of 83%. One may wonder why the figure is high after combination therapy. Experts opine that progestin causes breast tissue to divide. Fast cell replication increases the susceptibility of breast cancer.
Current studies show that consuming supplements of fish oil decreases the risk of having breast cancer. The study had a sample size of approximately 35,000 women. None of them had breast cancer. The women who took fish oil supplements had a reduced risked of developing breast cancer by 30%. So it’s highly recommended that all women consume fish oil supplements.