Fundamental Principles of Breast Cancer Prevention
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in developed countries — 1 in 8 women will develop the disease during her lifetime. Prevention plays a decisive role in reducing the risk.
What does “prevention” mean?
Breast cancer prevention aims to:
- Στην Minimize the likelihood of disease onset.
- Στην Increase awareness and education regarding risk and protective factors.
What can I do?
- Adopt healthy lifestyle habits:
- Balanced diet
- Regular physical activity
- Limitation of alcohol consumption
- Maintenance of a healthy body weight
- Avoid aggravating factors:
- Smoking (one of the few controllable risk factors)
- Prolonged exposure to hormones (e.g., hormone therapy without medical supervision)
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Understand your individual risk:
- Family history and genetic predisposition (e.g., BRCA1, BRCA2 mutations)
- In these cases, it may be necessary to perform specialized prevention strategies, such as:
- Prophylactic pharmacotherapy
- Prophylactic surgery (mastectomy or oophorectomy)
Knowledge is power
We cannot completely eliminate the risk, but we can significantly reduce it with proper education, screening, and lifestyle choices.
