Breast cancer is the number one cancer in women. It makes up over one forth of all cancers. Nearly one in ten women will develop a breast cancer in their lifetime. This risk doubles if a close relative has had a breast cancer! Three new cases are diagnosed and one woman dies of breast cancer every fifteen minutes!

The good news is, if breast cancer is found at an early stage, a nearly 85% cure rate can be expected. Unfortunately, about 70% of breast cancers are found accidentally and these are likely to be fairly sizable lesions.

Women over 40 get 85% of all breast cancers; only 1 % is found in males, but they can get it. Who's at higher risk? Risk factors include: no children or first child after age 30, a family history of breast cancer, and obesity.

What can be done? Since at this point we can't prevent it, the key to breast cancer is early detection. Regular self breast exam (SBE) can detect a cancer often before a physician can. In conjunction with mammography, SBE is allowing earlier detection of breast cancers and therefore more cures.

If you want to learn how to do SBE, the America Cancer Society has an excellent booklet that is free for the asking at my office down load the handout on this web site. I would be happy to explain how to do it, as well. Your health in this matter may literally be in your own hands.