Debunking the Myths of Breast Cancer - Part II

Start Here - Part I of Breast Cancer Myths

Breast cancer is a disease that causes a lot of fear and anxiety in women everywhere. When a widely-known threat to public health like this exists, women and people in general are going to talk a lot among themselves about the thing that is causing their fear – and when this happens, it becomes incredibly easy for unreliable information and rumors to spread. Complicating the process more is that the Internet has now brought the whole world together, literally, under one big virtual umbrella. In such an environment, it is extremely easy for gossip and innuendo to proliferate.

It is sad, but a lot of false and misleading ideas about breast cancer have now spread across the world in an online wildfire. In fact, there are now so many of these myths out there that it is not possible to debunk all of them in just one article. Here, then, is part two of our look at some of the myths and folklore that exist about breast cancer.

Myth: Only Women with a Family History of the Disease are at Risk
Outside of age, which is the number one predictor of breast cancer incidence, 70% of all women who develop breast cancers do not belong to any known high-risk category, including a previous family history. Family history can increase the odds of acquiring the disease for individual women but this provides no protection for women who do not come from such a background.

Myth: Most Breast Cancer Lumps are Cancerous
Somewhere between 80 and 85% of all lumps found by mammogram or other breast examination methods will turn out to be benign. So much emphasis has been placed on the importance of screening mammograms by medical professionals that many may have gotten the idea they can detect and diagnose cancer all by themselves – which they cannot.

Myth: One in Eight Women will get Breast Cancer in their Lifetimes
This is a statistic that can be easy to misunderstand. One in eight as a lifetime risk assumes women will live until approximately the age of 85, when most obviously will not. It is not until a woman reaches the age of 85 that her risk of coming down with the disease in subsequent years actually reaches one in eight. So it is important to understand that a lifetime risk does not mean that one in eight women will really come down with breast cancer at some point, because many will die from other causes before they have the chance to.

Myth: Cancer Cannot Return or Develop after a Mastectomy
It can even develop right on the edge of the surgery scars or it may have spread to other parts of the body by the time a mastectomy has been performed. Even the prophylactic mastectomy, which involves the pre-emptive removal of the breasts by women who are in high-risk categories, only keeps cancer away about 90% of the time.

Myth: Only on a Mother’s Side of the Family Does Breast Cancer Family History Matter
In fact, breast cancer histories on both sides matter equally in assessing risk. This misunderstanding is probably the fault of the experts, who go out of their way to mention the significance of first-degree relatives (mother, daughter, sister) having had the disease, while failing to properly emphasize the risk associated with second-degree relatives (grandmothers and aunts on either side of the family) having had it. Also, there are associations between prostate and colon cancer and breast cancer, so if male relatives have suffered from one of these on either side of the family it can also be indicative of an elevated breast cancer risk.