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Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staff
Breast cancer prevention for women with an average risk
Making changes in your daily life may help reduce your risk of breast cancer. Try to:
- Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all. Limit the amount of alcohol you drink to less than one drink a day, if you choose to drink.
- Exercise most days of the week. Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise on most days of the week. If you haven't been active lately, ask your doctor whether it's OK and start slowly.
- Limit postmenopausal hormone therapy. Combination hormone therapy may increase the risk of breast cancer. Talk with your doctor about the benefits and risks of hormone therapy. Some women experience bothersome signs and symptoms during menopause and, for these women, the increased risk of breast cancer may be acceptable in order to relieve menopause signs and symptoms. To reduce the risk of breast cancer, use the lowest dose of hormone therapy possible for the shortest amount of time.
- Maintain a healthy weight. If your current weight is healthy, work to maintain that weight. If you need to lose weight, ask your doctor about healthy strategies to accomplish this. Reduce the number of calories you eat each day and slowly increase the amount of exercise.
Breast cancer prevention for women with a high risk
If your doctor has assessed your family history and other factors and determined that you may have an increased risk of breast cancer, options to reduce your risk include:
- Preventive medications (chemoprevention). Estrogen-blocking medications help reduce the risk of breast cancer. Options include tamoxifen and raloxifene (Evista). These medications carry a risk of side effects, such as an increased risk of blood clots. Tamoxifen, but not raloxifene, is associated with an increased risk of uterine cancer. So, it is important to talk to your doctors about your individual medical history to determine which medications are right for you.
- Preventive surgery. Women with a very high risk of breast cancer may choose to have their healthy breasts surgically removed (prophylactic mastectomy). They may also choose to have their healthy ovaries removed (prophylactic oophorectomy) to reduce the risk of both breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
Catch cancer early
Although you can't prevent the development of breast cancer with screening or breast self-exams, these techniques may help you and your doctor find breast cancer in its earliest and more-treatable stages.
- Ask your doctor about breast cancer screening. Ask your doctor at what age you should begin breast cancer screening exams and tests, such as clinical breast exams and mammograms. Talk to your doctor about the benefits and risks of screening. Together you can decide what breast cancer screening strategies are right for you.
- Become familiar with your breasts through breast self-exams. Ask your doctor to show you how to do a breast self-exam to check for any lumps or other unusual signs in your breasts. A breast self-exam can't prevent breast cancer, but it may help you to better understand the normal changes that your breasts undergo and identify any unusual signs and symptoms.
References
- Breast cancer. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/003090-pdf.pdf. Accessed March 17, 2011.
- What you need to know about breast cancer. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/breast/AllPages/Print. Accessed March 19, 2011.
- Chlewbowski RT, et al. Estrogen plus progestin and breast cancer incidence and mortality in postmenopausal women. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2010;304:1684.
- Giuliano AE, et al. Axillary dissection vs. no axillary dissection in women with invasive breast cancer and sentinel node metastasis. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2011;305:569.
- Van Wely BJ, et al. Systematic review of the effect of external beam radiation therapy to the breast on axillary recurrence after negative sentinel lymph node biopsy. British Journal of Surgery. 2011;98:326.
- Robert NJ, et al. RIBBON-1: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III trial of chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab for first-line treatment of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative, locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology. In Press. Accessed March 22, 2011.
- Burstein HJ. Bevacizumab for advanced breast cancer: All tied up with a RIBBON? Journal of Clinical Oncology. In Press. Accessed March 22, 2011.
- Choueiri TK, et al. Congestive heart failure risk in patients with breast cancer treated with bevacizumab. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2011;29:632.
- Petrelli F, et al. Bevacizumab in advanced breast cancer: An opportunity as second-line therapy? Medical Oncology. In Press. Accessed March 22, 2011.
- Gnant M, et al. Endocrine therapy plus zoledronic acid in premenopausal breast cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2009;360:679.
- Coleman R, et al. Zoledronic acid use in cancer patients. Cancer. 2011;117:11.
- Pruthi S (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 22, 2011.
- Unexpected AZURE results lead to rethink for Zometa. Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy. 2011;11:329.
- Moynihan TJ (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. April 3, 2011.
- FDA commissioner removes breast cancer indication from Avastin label. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/ucm279485.htm. Accessed Nov. 18, 2011.
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