If your mother has breast cancer, you are more likely to have it yourself. Knowing your family history, understanding your personal risks, getting proper screening tests and choosing a lifestyle are important steps that lead to good breast health, according to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
"If breast cancer runs rampant in your family, understanding your risks and how you can achieve your breast health is crucial to both your physical and emotional well-being," said Cheryl Perkins, M.D., senior Komen Foundation medical advisor.
Family History as well
Increased Risk
If your mother, sister or daughter has breast cancer, your risk of contracting the disease is two or three times greater than that of a woman with no family history. However, being at high risk for breast cancer does not guarantee that you will have the disease. Talk to your provider to discuss your personal risk and his or her general testing recommendations. Common tests often include mammography, clinical breast examinations and breast self-examination. Additional testing may be recommended depending on your personal risk.
Gene modification as well
Genetic Testing
Only 5 to 10 percent of all breast cancers are genetic. Genetic testing can determine if you have benefited from mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which are key to the development of other breast cancers. However, having a mutated gene does not guarantee that you will get breast cancer. If you have concerns about your family history and personal risk, talk to your doctor about whether genetic testing is right for you.
Taking Preventive Measures-Making Healthy Living Choices
There are many factors that can increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. While some risks, such as being a woman and growing up, are beyond your control, others can be controlled. For example, risk factors such as alcoholism, lack of exercise, and obesity are all factors that you can work on.
Helping Your Mother With Breast Cancer
If your mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, she needs your support. From diagnosis to treatment and beyond, your mother's family and friends network will be an integral part of her support system.
How to Prevent Breast Cancer?
How long should a patient take tamoxifen to treat breast cancer?
Patients with advanced breast cancer may take tamoxifen for a variety of duration, depending on how they respond to these treatments and other factors. When used as an adjuvant therapy for first-line breast cancer, tamoxifen is usually prescribed for 5 years. However, the exact duration of treatment with tamoxifen is unknown.
How Often Should I Take Tamoxifen?
Two studies have confirmed the benefits of taking adjuvant tamoxifen daily for 5 years. These studies compared 5 years of tamoxifen treatment with 10 years of treatment. When taken for 5 years, the drug reduces the risk of recurrence of the first breast cancer and reduces the risk of developing a second major cancer in another breast. Taking tamoxifen for more than 5 years is less effective than 5 years of treatment.
What is Tamoxifen?
Tamoxifen is an oral estrogen module used in the treatment of breast cancer, and is currently the world's leading breast cancer treatment. It is used to treat early and advanced breast cancer in pre- and postmenopausal women. It is also approved by the FDA to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in women who are at high risk of contracting the disease. It has also been approved for the reduction of contralateral breast cancer.
Tamoxifen and Cancer
Tamoxifen is used to reduce the risk of breast cancer in women who:
1. They are at greater risk of developing breast cancer but have no history of the disease
2. have non-invasive breast cancer, hormone-receptor-positive, or DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ)
3. have hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer at any stage.
Tamoxifen is sometimes used to treat gynecomastia in men. Tamoxifen is also used by bodybuilders in a steroid cycle to try and prevent or reduce drug-induced gynecomastia caused by steroids used in the same cycle.
Tamoxifen is also used to treat infertility in women with anovulatory disorders. A dose of 10-40 mg per day is administered for 3-7 days in a female cycle.
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