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Breast Cancer - Prevention
You cannot control some things that put you at risk for breast cancer, such as your age and being female. But you can make personal choices that lower your risk of breast cancer. If you are at high risk for getting breast cancer, your doctor may also offer you certain medical treatments that can help prevent breast cancer.
Female hormones
Hormones change the way cells within the breast grow and divide. The years when you have a menstrual cycle are your high-estrogen years. Experts think that the longer you have higher estrogen, the more risk you have for breast cancer.4 This includes taking hormones after menopause.1, 26
- Avoid long-term, high-dose hormones after menopause. If you use hormone therapy for menopause symptoms, use a low dose for as short a time as possible. This includes estrogen-progestin and estrogen-testosterone.1, 3 Using estrogen by itself may slightly raise breast cancer risk.1
- Breast-feed. Breast-feeding may lower your breast cancer risk. The benefit appears to be greatest in women who breast-fed for longer than 12 months or who breast-fed several children.27
- Strive for a healthy weight. Extra fat cells make extra estrogen, which raises your breast cancer risk.4 Getting regular exercise and watching what you eat can help.
Having a full-term pregnancy before age 30 also lowers your breast cancer risk.10
Healthy food and exercise
- Eat a healthy diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. A low-fat diet with limited red meat may lower your breast cancer risk.28, 29, 30
- Be active. Try to do at least 2½ hours a week of moderate exercise. One way to do this is to be active 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week.5, 31 Staying active may lower your breast cancer risk.32
- Drink no more than one alcoholic drink a day.4 Using alcohol leads to extra estrogen in the body, which raises your breast cancer risk.10
"Anti-estrogen" medicine
If you are at high risk for breast cancer, talk to your doctor about taking medicine that helps prevent it. This is sometimes called hormone therapy for breast cancer. It blocks the effects of hormones on breast cancer cells.
- Tamoxifen is a medicine that blocks the effect of estrogen on breast cancer cells and normal breast cells. Among high-risk women, tamoxifen lowers their risk of breast cancer about the same as raloxifene does.33 But this medicine may also increase other risks, such as for endometrial cancer, stroke, and blood clots in veins and in the lungs.
- Raloxifene is widely used to prevent and treat osteoporosis. It works like estrogen on bone, but it works like an "anti-estrogen" on breast tissue.34 Among high-risk women, raloxifene lowers their breast cancer risk about the same as tamoxifen does. Compared to tamoxifen, raloxifene's endometrial cancer risk is lower.33
WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise
Breast Cancer Topics
VIVELLE-DOT (estradiol transdermal system) IS AVAILABLE BY PRESCRPTION ONLY.
INDICATION
Vivelle-Dot is used after menopause to: reduce moderate to severe hot flashes; treat moderate to severe dryness, itching and burning in or around the vagina; help reduce your chances of getting osteoporosis (thin weak bones); and treat certain conditions in which a young woman's ovaries do not produce enough estrogens naturally. Vivelle-Dot 0.025 mg/day is only used to prevent osteoporosis from menopause. If you use Vivelle-Dot only to treat your dryness, itching, and burning in and around your vagina or if you use Vivelle-Dot only to prevent osteoporosis from menopause, talk with your healthcare professional about whether a different treatment or medicine without estrogens might be better for you.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Estrogens increase the chances of getting cancer of the uterus (womb). Report any unusual vaginal bleeding right away while you are taking estrogens. Vaginal bleeding after menopause may be a warning sign of cancer of the uterus (womb).
Do not use estrogens with or without progestins to prevent heart disease, heart attacks, or strokes. Using estrogens with or without progestins may increase your chances of getting heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer, and blood clots. Using estrogens with progestins may increase your risk of dementia (decline in memory and thinking skills).
Vivelle-Dot should not be used if you have unusual vaginal bleeding; currently have or have had certain cancers, including cancer of the breast or uterus; had a stroke or heart attack in the recent past (for example, in the past year); currently have or have had blood clots; currently have or have had liver problems; or think you may be, or know that you are, pregnant.
The most common side effects that may occur with Vivelle-Dot are headache, breast tenderness, and back pain.
You and your healthcare professional should talk regularly about whether you still need treatment with Vivelle-Dot.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Please see Full Prescribing Information for Vivelle-Dot.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a new study reveals why a high number of women with the disease still prefer to have the entire breast surgically removed instead of just the tumor. It's not always because doctors recommend it.
