Breast cancer: myths and facts
5 facts about breast cancer
Sergey Shevchenko, Mednovosti
Fact # 1
About the controversial benefits of mammographyBreast cancer is a disease of developed countries.
The incidence in France is about twice as high as in Russia, and four times as high as in India (104 cases per 100,000 population annually versus 46 and 26, respectively). The fact is that in the West, women are more likely to live to cancer, and this disease is better diagnosed – even in those elderly patients who are likely to die due to other diseases.
The usual recommendation of oncologists is to do mammography regularly. This is an X-ray examination of the breast, which is advised to be carried out once every 1-3 years. In countries where such programs have been operating for a long time, screening is often criticized. In the USA, for example, they doubt whether universal mammography is justified for women from 40 to 49 years old, given the extremely small number of lives saved and a large number of false positive results. In Norway, where screening has been introduced for a long time, on the contrary, they complain that, on the one hand, mammography does not notice every fifth tumor, and on the other hand, 1 out of 4 diagnosed cases of cancer will not harm a woman and will not require treatment. Women under 40 years of age are not recommended to do mammography in any case: in youth, breast tissue is dense and it is very difficult to distinguish a tumor in the image, with age the mammary gland becomes more transparent to X-rays.
Fact # 2
About men's problemsMost men do not know that breast cancer threatens them as well.
In them, this disease is rare – less than 1 percent of cases, but forms of cancer are more aggressive than in women. In addition, men rarely worry, even if they find abnormalities in the breast – as a result, about half of the patients found tumors can not be removed immediately, without prior therapy. Most often, a man (usually aged 60-70 years) comes to the doctor with complaints of a seal in the nipple area or even bloody discharge from it. Experts consider cases of breast cancer in family history, mutations in some "oncological" genes, exposure to high doses of radiation, obesity, as well as liver disease and alcoholism to be the main risk factors.
Fact # 3
About genes and the meaning of preventive mastectomyApproximately every twentieth case of breast cancer is due to heredity – a "breakdown" in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes (from BReast CAncer – breast cancer).
The risk of getting sick in their carriers is 10 times higher than usual and is 50-87 percent. There are other genes in which mutations put the mammary gland at risk, for example, TP53 and BACH1, but they are much less common. Mutations of BRCA1 or BRCA2 threaten cancer not only of the mammary glands, but also of the ovaries – the probability of such a malignant tumor increases to 40 percent. In the USA, a woman is checked for the presence of this genetic breakdown if three of her close relatives had breast cancer. Or at least one of the relatives of the tumor was found in two mammary glands at once, as well as up to 50 years. Abroad, carriers of mutations often resort to preventive mastectomy – removal of mammary glands. In Russia, such an operation can officially be performed only at the N. N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center in the presence of cancer of one breast. However, such operations are still performed by plastic surgeons in private clinics. Removal of the mammary glands, unlike removal of the ovaries, does not threaten a woman with hormonal consequences, and the risk of getting cancer is reduced to almost zero – there is simply no place for the disease to arise.
Fact # 4
About contraception and early pregnancyMammologists and oncologists advise all women, regardless of heredity, to give birth early and breastfeed their children.
Early onset of menstruation, on the contrary, increases the likelihood of getting sick, since the mammary glands are longer under the influence of hormones that stimulate cell division. And the more divisions there are, the more likely there is a breakdown in the DNA that can lead to cancer. There is a widespread belief that oral contraceptives are a risk factor, but large population studies do not confirm this.
Fact #5
About antiperspirants, phones and brasIn the 1990s, some doctors said that abortions increased the likelihood of getting breast cancer.
But scientists have followed the lives of several thousand women in various studies, and it turned out that those who did not have an abortion had the same chances of getting sick as those who did.
In addition to oral contraceptives, a good half of the achievements of modern civilization are blamed for the occurrence of cancer. Biochemists have assumptions that the body's cells can take aluminum compounds found in antiperspirants for estrogens, which means that they push the development of breast cancer. But doctors tried to identify the link between antiperspirants and cancer not in vitro, but in their patients and healthy women, and they failed.
There is no evidence yet that breast cancer is caused by bras with bones, radiation from cell phones or breast augmentation implants. The latter, however, make it difficult to diagnose the disease. Many women with breast cancer associate the appearance of a tumor with a bruise. Scientists have not found such a connection.
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