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Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention

Breast Cancer Detection

Summary & Participants

Advances in breast cancer treatment always spark a lot of interest. But equally important are new techniques for detection and diagnosis -- in most cases, early detection means a better chance of recovery.

Medically Reviewed On: March 08, 2006

Webcast Transcript

VAREN BLACK: I'm Varen Black, and welcome to our webcast. Breast cancer treatment has made great advances in recent years, but so have techniques for detecting the disease, which is equally important. Joining me to discuss the latest in breast cancer diagnosis is Dr. Seema Khan, who is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University Medical School.

Dr. Khan, in a nutshell, briefly tell us, what are the risk factors associated with breast cancer?

SEEMA KHAN, MD: The most important risk factor for breast cancer is age. As age increases, so does breast cancer risk. Two thirds of breast cancer happens in women over 50 years of age. The other risk factors have to do with lifetime hormonal exposure, so women who start their periods early have an increased risk. Women who have their first child at a later age, over 30 or so, the risk is increased. With a late menopause, the risk increases also. If there are first-degree family members -- mother, sister, daughter -- who have been affected with breast cancer, that implies increased risk, and a history of prior benign biopsies also increases breast cancer risk.

And then there are lifestyle things like amount of alcohol use and body weight. Obese women, particularly after menopause, are at increased risk for breast cancer.

VAREN BLACK: Doctor, some women feel because they don't have a family history of breast cancer they don't need to be screened. That is not true?

SEEMA KHAN, MD: Correct. Most women who develop breast cancer, in fact, do not have a family history, so the absence of a family history does not mean that breast cancer will not happen, and screening is important for every woman in the right age group, in the age group over 40.

VAREN BLACK: What are some emerging diagnostic tools to further assess risk in high-risk women?

SEEMA KHAN, MD: Well, the diagnostic tool that's most established, obviously, is mammography, and there is a new twist on mammography, which is that instead of recording imaging information on film, as we've been used to doing for many decades, the image can be recorded digitally on a computer, and that's called digital mammography, and that offers some advantages, particularly for women with dense breasts that are hard to see through. So digital mammography is something that's actually over the horizon. It's available in many centers. It's available at Northwestern and many other places and is being evaluated in the general sort of community setting, as well.

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