“The key to preventing breast cancer is screening to find women that are at high risk of developing the disease, before they develop cancer. Once we can find these women there are several possible interventions that can stop breast cancer from forming,” explained Morton, who lives in Ladera Ranch.. “In women with certain risk factors there are medications that can actually stop up to 86% of women from developing breast cancer in the first place.”
The difference in screening for risk in women is different than screening with mammography. Once a mammogram finds something, the woman already has breast cancer. The goal for mammography is to find breast cancers in its earliest form.
Breast cancer risk factors are frequently overestimated or underestimated. Women that underestimate their risk often say that they don’t have any history in their family. The facts are that up to 75% of women that develop breast cancer don’t have family history. Women with a family history tend to overestimate their risk. There are many risk factors that are far more significant than family history.
The current understanding and treatment of breast cancer today is where heart disease was 20 years ago, says Morton. At that time a patient would wait until they had chest pains, or had a heart attack, and then would be treated. By finding risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol through screening and treating the patient before they have a heart attack, the death rate from heart disease dropped over 40%.
