How To Calculate Your Risk For Breast Cancer
Using known risk factors for breast cancer, mathematical models can be developed to help answer important questions. These mathematical models are useful tools for researchers and for patients as follows:
- 1. Research on risk factors – The Claus risk assessment model was used to discover the subpopulation of people who had an autosomal dominant genetic allele that increased their risk from 10% to 92%. This led to the discovery of the BRCA genes associated with breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer.
- 2. Clinical trial eligibility – The Gail risk assessment model was developed to help researchers determine who to enroll in the NSAPB Breast Cancer Prevention Trials
where chemoprevention was shown to reduce breast cancer risk. Read more…
Genetic Risk Factors In Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the United States. In 2008, approximately 184,450 patients were estimated to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and an estimated 40,930 were estimated to die of this disease. Furthermore, over 50,000 female carcinoma in situ breast cases would have been diagnosed. The etiology of breast cancer is poorly understood with multiple genetic and environmental factors involved in the initiation and progression of cancer.
Scandinavian Twin Study: For years, there has been a hot debate as to whether the cause of breast cancer is genetic or environmental. Then in 2000, Lichtenstein and his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden published their study of 44,788 pairs of twins from the Swedish, Danish, and Finnish twin registries. In this study, they looked at cancer risk with 28 different types of cancers and did statistical modeling of genetic and hereditary contributions in eleven different cancer types. Read more…
Categories: Cancer Tags: Breast, Breast Cancer, Cancer, cancer deaths in women, Hereditary, most common cancer, Risk
