To lower the risk of breast cancer:

• If you don’t drink, then don’t start.
• Limit your consumption of alcoholic beverages you drink for the week to equal less than 1 alcoholic drink a day (1 drink equals 1 can or bottle of beer (12 ounces), 1 glass of wine (5 ounces), or 1 shot of liquor (1.5 ounces)).
• Maintain a healthy body weight and avoid constant weight gain over time as an adult
• Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables Screening for breast cancer Screening for breast cancer saves lives by detecting the disease early in its most treatable stage. There are 3 screening exams for breast cancer:
• Breast self-examination
• Clinical breast examination
• Mammogram How often a woman should have each of these exams depends on her age.
• Women age 20-39 years old should perform a monthly breast self-exam and receive a clinical breast exam every 1 to 3 years. Mammograms are not routine for women under age 40 except for women with strong risk factors. These risk factors include a family history of premenopausal breast cancer (mother or sister) or a personal history of breast, ovarian, or endometrial cancer.
• Women age 40 and older should perform a monthly breast self-exam, receive an annual clinical breast exam, and get an annual mammogram.
• Women age 70 and older, should discuss breast cancer screening with their health care professional. If you are a woman and 20 years of age or older, then you should examine your breasts once a month. The examine should be done about 3 to 5 days after the end of each period. If you are no longer menstruating, then establish a routine by examining your breasts on the same day every month. Your health care professional can show you the proper technique to use when examining your breasts. DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT This site provides general information that may apply to your specific situation. You may choose to visit the National Cancer Institute's web site at www.cancer.gov, which is updated more frequently. Once there, you will be able to select from a full range of cancer topics. If you want to speak with a cancer information expert confidentially, you may choose to call 1-800-4CANCER (1-800-422-6237) between 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM. It is always best to discuss your personal risk for cancer as well as your screening, diagnosis and treatment needs with your health care provider before you commit to a course of action. How is breast cancer diagnosed? Every breast lump should be checked by a health care professional. Suspicious lumps may be examined further by a health care professional using:
• Diagnostic mammograms which are similar to an x-ray, and display an image of the breast tissue. A radiologist will read the mammogram and determine if additional tests are needed. These mammograms are also read by computer-aided detection and diagnosis (CAD) software, which helps to check suspicious changes on mammograms.
• Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create an image of the breast by sending waves into the breast and reading the echoes that bounce off the tissue inside the breast. Ultrasounds are used with mammograms as a way to determine if the breast tissue has changed, especially in women that have dense breast tissue.
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a scan that uses radio waves and a contrast dye to look at the whole body. It can be used to detect cancer in women who are at high risk of breast cancer.
• A biopsy is a procedure in which all or part of the abnormal tissue is removed and examined to see if it is cancerous. In a fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB), a needle is inserted into the lump to draw out tissue or fluid to look for any abnormal cells. An ultrasound is used to position the needle correctly. A stereotactic core needle biopsy will take a larger sample of the lump using a needle to also draw out the sample. In a surgical biopsy, the lump, or a portion of the lump, is removed for further study. This is usually done at a hospital on an outpatient basis. Biopsies allow the pathologist to identify the type of cell that may be growing abnormally and gives the cell a grade. The grade can help to predict the patient’s response to treatment by comparing the abnormal cells to how that type of cell should look normally.
• For estrogen, progesterone, and HER2/neu receptor status, the cancer cells are tested to see if there are certain connectors on the cells that would allow hormones or proteins to attach to the surface of the cells. Estrogen and progesterone hormones are the reproductive hormones found in females. The HER2/neu protein promotes growth in the cell. Knowing the receptor status of the cancer cells can help tailor the treatment to the cancer and may improve the outcome of the treatment. How is breast cancer treated? Breast cancer is usually treated with some form of surgery (operation), such as a lumpectomy (in which the cancer and some normal tissue around it are removed, but the rest of the breast is left intact) or a mastectomy (in which the entire breast is removed). Your health care professional may remove and examine some of the lymph nodes in your underarm area or armpit as well, to see if the cancer has spread to this area. This surgery may be done at the time of the original surgery or during a separate surgery a week or more later. Examining these lymph nodes can help your health care professional make a decision about the effectiveness of additional treatment. In addition to the surgeries mentioned, radiation, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and/or targeted therapy are sometimes used to treat breast cancer as well. Women who choose a mastectomy may also choose to have breast reconstruction (using tissue from the abdomen or back to form a new breast). This can be done at the time of surgery or later. You and your health care professional should discuss the options, and together make a decision about what treatment is best for you.