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Questions to assess breast cancer recurrence risk are an important part of understanding your prognosis after your surgery and treatment program are concluded. While most women and men are successfully treated for breast cancer, it's a fact of life that up to 10% of breast cancer patients will have a recurrence of breast cancer in their lifetimes.

Here are some questions to assess breast cancer recurrence risk that you can discuss with your medical doctor to learn more about your particular situation.

Questions about about your health history:

Does my ethnic or racial ancestry influence breast cancer recurrence?

Do I have genetic tendencies (genes like BRCA1, BRCA2, and others) that put me at greater risk for more breast cancer?

If I have relatives (especially close relatives like my mother and sister) with breast cancer, does that change my prognosis?

Would my mother's exposure to chemicals like DES change my prognosis?

How does my age change my risk of breast cancer recurrence?

Does my reproductive and menstrual history affect my prognosis?

Questions about your particular cancer:

How does the tumor size and grade affect my breast cancer recurrence rate prognosis?

If my breast cancer is only in one breast, will the other breast get cancer in the future?

What is the hormone receptor status of the cancer and how does that change my prognosis?

What is the tumor HER2/neu (human epidural growth factor receptor-2, a gene that controls cell growth) status, and how does that affect my risk of breast cancer recurrence?

How far is the lymph node involvement?

Is there any metastasis to other areas of my body?

Questions about what you can do to help yourself:

What healthy habits should I practice to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence?

Remember, there is always something you can do to help make your life and health better. Here are some health habits you should know.

Early detection is your greatest tool. Always observe your body, do monthly self-examinations, see your doctor for examinations, and choose recommended mammograms for greatest protection.

Research on healthy habits and breast cancer shows that restricting alcohol to one drink a day and weight control, especially managing "belly fat," are healthy habits that may reduce breast cancer risk. There are also several studies showing that daily exercise, eating 5 fruits or vegetables daily, and 5 cups of green tea daily can reduce breast cancer recurrence risk by 50%.

And get involved with your body and your future by asking these questions to assess breast cancer recurrence risk.

Why The Opposite Breast Should Be Evaluated With MRI?

Breast cancer is a worldwide problem with which causes 502,000 deaths per year worldwide. In the United States breast cancer is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in women. Every year more than 40,000 women in the United States die of breast cancer. It is estimated the a woman living in the United States have one in eight chance of developing breast cancer and one in thirty three chance of dying from the disease.

Incidence of breast cancer shows a dramatically increasing trend since 1970s and this increased incidence is thought to be related to the changes in life style. Compared to 1970s more women are now delaying their first pregnancy and have relatively smaller families. These factors have an effect on the level of hormonal exposure during life time and this is considered to be a major factor in the increasing breast cancer incidence in the western world.

With breast cancer being so much of a prevalent disease everything should be done to prevent the occurrence of the breast cancer and to detect the breast cancer early once it develops.

Mammogram is a technique that is very commonly used to screen women for early detection of breast cancer. Mammogram helps to detect breast cancer at a very early stage when it is more likely to be cured by surgery with or without chemotherapy and radiation therapy. MRI is a better technique to detect breast cancer early and it is proven to be more sensitive and effective in detecting breast cancer early. However this technique is not very widely available and is much more expensive compared to mammogram. Because of this reason MRI is not routinely recommended for the purpose of screening for breast cancer. However MRI is widely used in cases where the women in question are high risk for the development of breast cancer or when the mammogram result is inconclusive.

A recent study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that women who are diagnosed with breast cancer on one breast have high risk of having breast cancer on the other breast at the time of diagnosis. This study showed that more than 3% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer had another cancer in the other breast. These were not detected by mammograms and if mammogram alone was used these 3% of women would not have found out that they have cancer in the other breast. Because of this finding it would be best if every woman with diagnosis of a breast cancer try to obtain an MRI of the opposite breast to evaluate for small breast cancer that may be present in the opposite breast. Mammogram is not enough in this setting.

The author is a paramedical professional and a freelance health information writer. Author contributes his work on various websites including medicineworld.org

Cancer Causes

Cancer causes :

There is not possible a single cause of any disease. Cancer is a group of 200 diseases in which the cells of body become abnormal and being out of control. Before describing the main causes of the cancer I am first defining in short the various types of cancer.

Types of cancer :

Breast Cancer

Brain Tumor

Bone Cancer

Bladder Cancer

Anal Cancer

Appendix Cancer

Gastrointestinal Cancer

Head & Neck Cancer

Leukemia

Lung Cancer

Lymphoma

Prostate Cancer

Skin Cancer

Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Causes of cancer :

Tobacco Tobacco is the main cause of cancer. Cigarette smoking also comes in this category. Smoking can cause cancers of the lungs mouth, throat, bladder, kidneys and several other organs. According to the records smoking causes 30% of all cancer deaths in the U.S.

Drinking of alcohol

Drinking a lot of alcohol also been increase a person’s chance of getting cancer of the mouth cavity, throat, and some other organs.

Sun Exposure Ultra Violet rays are the main cause of skin cancer. Sun burn and UV rays can damage your skin and this damage can lead the skin cancer.

Genetics If your family belongs to any kind of cancer history, it means you need to extra precautions because genetics plays very important role for many hereditary cancers, And their may a grate chance of them to develop in your body. Breast cancer genes The BRCA1 and BRCA2 are examples of genetic predisposition.

Infectious diseases Viruses are also cause of some cancers. The main viruses which affect the human cancer are hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human papillae virus.

Environmental Factors: Today’s environment is so stressful that most people are affected by a depressed immune system. Various immune problems you can face such as allergies, asthma, yeast infection, frequent cold and flu etc which may cause of cancer of various categories.

Hormonal imbalances Harmonic imbalance is also a big cause of cancer. Hormone imbalance is a type of allergic reaction which promotes the "endometrial" cancer.

Unsafe Sex: Unsafe sex can increase your risk for human papillae virus infection. If one has more the one sex partners then the possibilities of cancer in the uterus increases. Researchers also think during the oral sex the same case can be drawn to tonsil cancer.

Age Factor Various types of cancer become when a person get older. That’s cause is the changes that cause a cell to become cancerous in the first place take a long time to develop. There have to be a number of changes to the genes within a cell before it turns into a cancer cell. The changes can happen by accident when the cell is dividing. Or they can happen because the cell has been damaged by carcinogens and the damage is then passed on to future 'daughter' cells when that cell divides.

Author is running a health information site Health Online where information on several diseases like allergies, blood disorders, cancer, children’s health, digestive disorder, liver diseases etc. and tips on dieting, nutrition and improving lifestyle has been provided. Find some useful articles on cancer here cancer causes