What are the risk factors for skin cancer? For breast cancer? For lung cancer?!
Question: Skin cancer -- sun exposure, ultraviolet light exposure, family history, personal history
Breast cancer -- being a female, being over age 50, early menarche, later age at first pregnancy, family history, personal history, certain medications and supplements.
Lung cancer -- smoking, smoking, and, let me think... smoking
Answers: Skin cancer -- sun exposure, ultraviolet light exposure, family history, personal history
Breast cancer -- being a female, being over age 50, early menarche, later age at first pregnancy, family history, personal history, certain medications and supplements.
Lung cancer -- smoking, smoking, and, let me think... smoking
The greatest risk factor for breast cancer is being female -over 99% of those diagnosed are women.
The second greatest is getting older - 80% of those diagnosed are over 50.
5-10% of breast cancer cases are due to hereditary factors.
The other known risk factors are:
Having children at an older age or not at all. The more children a woman has may also slightly lower her risk. Breast-feeding helps protect against the disease. The longer a woman breast feeds her children, the more she lowers her risk.
Starting periods at a younger than average age (under 12) or having a late menopause (after 55)
Taking the contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) causes a small increase in risk. However, the risk gradually returns to normal after you stop taking them.
Being overweight (especially after the menopause).
Regularly drinking more than 1 unit of alcohol per day slightly increases the risk of breast cancer.
Having a previous diagnosis of breast cancer increases the risk of developing a new cancer in the other breast.
These are only risk factors though; ticking one, some or all these boxes does not mean you will get breast cancer, and many people who are diagnosed with breast cancer have none of these risk factors.
Obviously smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, and excessive sun exposure for skin cancer; but I don't know much about those cancers so can't provide any other risk factors