The incidence of breast cancer has increased dramatically over the past two decades. The rate has gone from one out of 20 women to a current estimated one out of eight women. That is, 12% of all women in America will develop breast cancer during their lifetime, and the incidence is increasing. This makes breast cancer the most common cancer of American women today. It is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in women, behind only lung cancer in its mortality rate. If you are at increased risk for breast cancer, actions you can take now will make a great difference in whether you actually get it or not. Natural medicine has much to offer to effectively reduce your risk. Now is the time to take action in order to prevent a potentially devastating disease from making you a statistic. Study the subject if you can, plan a course of action with your doctor, and take action. The actions you take now can reward you for years to come.

Once cancer cells overcome your immune system's ability to kill them, their number will increase until even with immune system enhancement or stimulation, the situation will not easily be reversible by natural means. Different breast cancer cell lines reproduce at a different rate. When the reproduction rate is slow, there can be a long period, months or years, in which cancer cells exist, but their numbers are low. Even at this time, those cells can be killed by natural means.

Detection
Breast cancer is often discovered by the woman herself on breast examination or by her physician during a medical visit. A woman can usually feel a hard, non-tender mass that is not particularly movable within her breast tissue. Other signs of breast cancer can include swelling, dimpling, or redness of the breast tissue. If the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the armpit or above the collarbone, they may feel enlarged and hard.

Regular screening can help you determine how aggressively to try to prevent or treat a cancer that is detected early. How high a woman's chance of survival is depends on how early the cancer is detected. The earlier the detection and the more localized a tumor is to the breast tissue itself, the more likely a woman is to have a long term recovery from this disease (five years or more). For example, women with localized tumors are eight times more likely to survive the disease long term than a woman with an advanced case that has spread throughout her body.

Mammography is not the only screening test available, and may not be as useful as commonly thought. There is an alternative medical technique that is able to detect breast changes earlier: advanced thermography. Thermography uses natural infrared radiation from the body and, by measuring temperature variations, can spot abnormalities. Without using any ionizing radiation or mechanical pressure, the latest thermographic equipment can see breast cancer developing before mammography could image a tumor. Thermography accomplishes this because it is able to detect the beginnings of angiogenesis, when cancer cells first try to form their own blood supply - a necessary step before they can grow rapidly and metastasize.

In a Dutch review of 8 studies, it was found that only 2 of them meet adequate randomization requirements. These two studies indicated that mammography, one of the most widely used screening tests for breast cancer, is next to useless in reducing the death rate from the disease. [Syst Rev 2001;(4):CD001877] Additionally, the risk of some types of breast cancer is increased by regular mammogram screening. Some researchers believe that the breast compression experienced during mammography may promote metastases.

The definitive diagnosis of breast cancer can only be made by doing a surgical biopsy. This allows the tissue sample removed from the breast to be looked at under the microscope and examined for cancerous cells.

A test that can detect breast cancer many months prior to any clinical manifestation is available. This safe FDA approved test, though still not commonly known, can give you the early warning that is needed to successfully prevent what is viewed by some doctors as inevitable. This preferred test is called AMAS (Anti-Malignin Antibody Screen) and is available for doctors worldwide through Oncolab. According to Dr. Bogoch, its founder, a large scale study demonstrated it is 95% accurate on the first test, and 99% when repeated in breast cancer. The test can detect cancer up to 19 months before conventional medical tests can find it. If your doctor does not know about this test, continue looking until you find someone who does - information is available on the Internet. The test involves taking a blood sample and requires special processing. It is also useful for monitoring treatments: the test should become less positive if the treatments are working.

Risk Factors for Breast Cancer
Not all women have the same risk of developing breast cancer. While any woman can develop the disease, certain factors do put some women statistically at greater risk:

• Previous history of breast cancer.
• Family history of breast cancer. This is particularly pertinent if a woman's mother or sisters had the disease.
• Early onset of menstrual periods.
• Late menopause - Women who menstruate for more than 40 years seem to be at particular risk.
• Postmenopausal age. Most breast cancers occur after age 50.
• Childlessness or having a first child after age 30.
• Bottle feeding. Women who nurse their children appear to be at lower risk.
• Certain types of "atypical" cell patterns with benign (noncancerous) breast disease.
• High fat diet - this seems to be a risk factor for some women.
• Obesity - a high-fat and overly-rich diet causes women to be overweight, which again is a risk factor.
• Alcohol use - more than nine drinks per week significantly increases the risk.
• Being tall.
• Being wealthy.
• Exposure to radiation.
• Prolonged estrogen use / elevated estrogen levels.
• Exposure to unnatural chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides.
• Urban lifestyle.
• Women with dense tissue in more than 75% of the breast face four times the risk of developing breast cancer than do women who have little or no dense breast tissue. Thus, new-onset breast discomfort during hormone replacement therapy may indicate an increased risk for developing breast cancer.

Note: Study after study also shows that the concentration of carcinogens in human breast milk declines steadily as nursing continues. Thus the protective effect of breast-feeding on the mother appears to be a direct result of downloading a lifelong burden of carcinogens from her breasts into the tiny body of her infant. This is why a breast-fed infant receives its so-called "safe" lifetime limit of dioxin in the first six months of drinking breast milk. The presence of these carcinogens may be associated with the increasing risk of breast cancer women are facing today. The importance of avoiding such contaminants is causing many women to turn to more natural living and eating practices in order to prevent diseases such as breast cancer.

Estrogenic Effects of Sunscreen
A 2001 study by the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Zurich Switzerland explored the possible estrogenic effects of sunscreens. They examined six frequently used UVA and UVB screens for estrogenicity and found five of the six increased cell proliferation in breast cancer cells. These were:

• benzophenone-3 (Bp-3)
• octyl-dimethyl-PABA (OD-PABA)
• homosalate (HMS)
• 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor (4-MBC)
• octyl-methoxycinnamate (OMC)

Butyl-methoxydibenzoylmethane (B-MDM) was the only inactive UV blocking chemical. The researchers concluded that UV screens should be tested for endocrine activity, in view of possible long-term effects in humans and wildlife.
[Environ Health Perspect 2001 Mar;109(3): pp.239-44)]

There is more than one kind of breast cancer. Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) is an advanced and accelerated form of breast cancer usually not detected by mammograms or ultrasounds. Inflammatory breast cancer requires immediate aggressive treatment with chemotherapy prior to surgery and is treated differently than more common types of breast cancer. "African Americans have a higher incidence of IBC than do Caucasians and other ethnic groups (10.1%, 6.2%, and 5.1%, respectively)." source

We have been taught and are reminded frequently by public service announcements and by the medical community that when a woman discovers a lump on her breast she should go to the doctor immediately.

Inflammatory breast cancer usually grows in nests or sheets, rather than as a confined, solid tumor and therefore can be diffuse throughout the breast with no palpable mass. The cancer cells clog the lymphatic system just below the skin. Lymph node involvement is assumed. Increased breast density compared to prior mammograms should be considered suspicious.

You Don't Have to Have a Lump to Have Breast Cancer.

Some women who have inflammatory breast cancer may remain undiagnosed for long periods, even while seeing their doctor to learn the cause of her symptoms. The symptoms are similar to mastitis, a breast infection and some doctors, not recognizing IBC, will prescribe antibiotics. If a response to antibiotics is not apparent after a week, a biopsy should be performed or a referral to a breast specialist is warranted.

A surprising portion of young women with IBC had their first symptoms during pregnancy or lactation. The misconception that these young women are at lower risk for breast cancer and the fact that IBC is the most aggressive form of breast cancer may result in metastases when the diagnosis is made.

One or more of the following are typical symptoms of IBC:

• Swelling, usually sudden, sometimes a cup size in a few days
• Itching
• Pink, red, or dark colored area (called erythema) sometimes with texture similar to the skin of an orange (called peau d'orange)
• Ridges and thickened areas of the skin
• What appears to be a bruise that does not go away
• Nipple retraction
• Nipple discharge, may or may not be bloody
• Breast is warm to the touch
• Breast pain (from a constant ache to stabbing pains)
• Change in color and texture of the aureole