Thread by @AVONHMO

Can bras cause breast cancer?

Unless people experience breast cancer or are close to someone who does, they might not be able to separate myth from fact when it comes to #breastcancer.

So let's talk about the myths, causes and symptoms.

#BreastCancerAwarenessMonth

MYTH 1: If I don’t have a family history of breast cancer, I won’t get it.

FACT: Most people diagnosed with breast cancer have no known family history.

Many people think of breast cancer as an inherited disease. But only about 5–10% of breast cancers are believed to be hereditary, meaning they’re caused by abnormal changes (or mutations) in certain genes passed from parent to child.

The vast majority of people who get breast cancer have no family history, suggesting that other factors must be at work, such as environment and lifestyle.

Still, if you have a strong family history of breast cancer on either your mother’s or your father’s side, this is an important risk factor that should be taken seriously. If there are cases of breast cancer in close blood relatives, share this information with your doctor.

MYTH 2: If you maintain a healthy weight, exercise regularly, eat healthily, and limit alcohol, you don’t have to worry about breast cancer.

FACT: Although these behaviours can help lower breast cancer risk significantly, they can’t eliminate it.

Yes, there is evidence that all of these behaviours can help lower your risk. However, they can’t guarantee you’ll never get the disease. There are so many examples of people who do everything right and still get breast cancer.

It’s certainly worth managing the risk factors you can control, such as what you eat and drink and how physically active you are. But it’s still important to get regular screenings, perform breast self-exams, and pay attention to any unusual changes in your breasts.

MYTH 3: Wearing a bra can cause breast cancer.

FACT: There is no evidence that bras cause breast cancer.

From time to time, media coverage and the internet have fueled myths that wearing a bra can increase breast cancer risk. This is wrong.

The theory was that wearing a bra — especially an underwire style — could restrict the flow of lymph fluid out of the breast, causing toxic substances to build up in the tissue.

However, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim.

MYTH 4: Using underarm antiperspirant can cause breast cancer.

FACT: There is no evidence of a connection between underarm antiperspirant and breast cancer, but the safety of antiperspirants is still being studied.

MYTH 5: Consuming too much sugar causes breast cancer.

FACT: There is no evidence that sugar in the diet causes breast cancer.

Not just with breast cancer but with all types of cancer, there’s a common myth that sugar can feed cancer and speed up its growth. All cells, whether cancerous or healthy, use the sugar in the blood (called glucose) as fuel.

While it’s true that cancer cells consume sugar more quickly than normal cells, there isn’t any evidence that excessive sugar consumption causes cancer.

That said, we do know that eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain, and being overweight is an established risk factor for breast cancer. In addition, some studies have linked diabetes with a higher risk of breast cancer — especially more aggressive, later-stage cancers.

MYTH 6: Annual mammograms guarantee that breast cancer will be found early.

FACT: Although mammography is the best early-detection tool we have, it doesn’t always find breast cancer at an early stage.

Although mammography is a very good screening tool, it isn’t foolproof. It can return a false-negative result, meaning that the images look normal even though cancer is present. It’s estimated that mammograms miss about 20% of breast cancers at the time of screening.

False-negative results tend to be more common in women who have dense breast tissue, which is made up of more glandular and connective tissue than fatty tissue. Younger women are more likely to have dense breasts.

Mammography does catch most breast cancers, though, and that’s why regular screenings are essential. It’s important to pay attention to any changes in your breasts, perform monthly breast self-exams & have a physical examination of your breasts by a health professional annually.

MYTH 7: Breast cancer always causes a lump you can feel.

FACT: Breast cancer might not cause a lump, especially when it first develops.

People are sometimes under the impression that breast cancer always causes a lump that can be felt during a self-exam. They might use this as a reason to skip mammograms, thinking they’ll be able to feel any change that might indicate a problem.

However, breast cancer doesn’t always cause a lump. By the time it does, cancer might have already moved beyond the breast into the lymph nodes. Although performing breast self-exams is certainly a good idea, it isn’t a substitute for regular screening with mammography.

There are some other myths about what types of breast lumps are less worrisome, such as:

“If the lump is painful, it isn’t breast cancer,”

“If you can feel a lump that is smooth, and/or that moves around freely under the skin, it’s not breast cancer.”

All wrong.

Any lump or unusual mass that can be felt through the skin needs to be checked out by a healthcare professional. Although most lumps are benign (not cancer), there is always the possibility of breast cancer.

MYTH 8: Early-stage breast cancer rarely recurs.

FACT: Even with early-stage breast cancer, there is always some risk that the cancer will return.

Many people believe that early-stage breast cancer — cancer that hasn’t moved beyond the breast and underarm lymph nodes — has almost no chance of recurring. Wrong.

Although most people with early-stage breast cancer won’t have a recurrence, the risk never goes away completely.

Another myth: If breast cancer doesn’t come back within 5 years, it will never come back. While it’s true that the risk of recurrence is greatest in the first 2 to 5 years, later recurrences can happen.

Because of these myths, some women with early-stage breast cancer report feeling completely blindsided when they have a recurrence. Even at 20 years after diagnosis, people with stage I, low-risk hormone receptor-positive breast cancer have a 15–20% chance of recurrence.

Recurrent breast cancer can be local or regional, meaning it comes back in the breast or chest area where the original cancer was found, or distant, meaning it comes back in another part of the body, such as the bone, liver, or lungs.

MYTH 8: All breast cancer is treated pretty much the same way.
FACT: Treatment plans vary widely depending on the characteristics of cancer and patient preferences.

Many people have some vague idea that breast cancer requires some combination of surgery, radiation therapy, and maybe chemotherapy, but they don't know much beyond that. So many different factors can come into play when choosing treatments.

MYTH 9: Breast cancer only happens to middle-aged and older women.

FACT: Younger women can and do get breast cancer, as do men. Abisayo Fakiyesi, the survivor we have in the studio today, noticed her first breast cancer in her 20s.

It is true that being female and growing older are the main risk factors for developing breast cancer. In 2017, about 4% of invasive breast cancers were diagnosed in women under age 40, while about 23% were diagnosed in women in their 50s and 27% in women ages 60 to 69.

While 4% might sound small, it isn’t zero: This percentage means that one in every 25 invasive breast cancer cases occurred in women under 40.

Women of all ages need to pay attention to their breasts, perform self-exams, and report any unusual changes to their doctors — and insist that breast cancer be ruled out if there’s a concerning symptom.

Breast cancer is even rarer in men, but it does happen. People often think that men can’t get breast cancer because they don’t have breasts — but they do have breast tissue.

MYTH 10: When treatment is over, you’re finished with breast cancer.

FACT: Breast cancer can have a long-term impact on people’s lives and well-being.

People with breast cancer often report that their family and friends expect them to be ready to move on after treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy end.

In reality, targeted therapies such as Herceptin may be prescribed for a year or more.

Also, if a woman has decided to have her breasts reconstructed, this may require a series of surgeries over several months. And for those with metastatic or stage IV breast cancer, treatment will last for the rest of their lives.

Even after main treatments are done, people can experience long-term physical side effects: pain and tightness, fatigue, skin changes, neuropathy (tingling and numbness in the hands and feet), menopausal symptoms, and others, depending on the treatment regimen.

Other side effects can be mental/emotional: anxiety, fear of recurrence & relationship changes, etc.

For many people, the effects of the breast cancer experience last for years — or for life, in the case of metastatic breast cancer — but their loved ones just don’t get it.

That's all we've got today and we hope you enjoyed listening in to the show. Do join us next week for another interesting edition.

Do have a wonderful evening and tell your loved ones to make breast self-exams a priority.