Abstract
Breast cancer incidence rates in the United States have increased at a rate of 1% per year since 1940 [1]. Despite considerable advances in early detection and in therapeutic modalities, the mortality caused by this disease has remained almost unchanged for the past five decades [2, 3]. This already dismal picture is worsened by the gradual increase in breast cancer incidence in most Western countries and in societies that recently became westernized or that are in the process of westernization [2, 3]. Epidemiological observations that daughters of women who migrate from low-incidence to high-incidence countries acquire the breast cancer risk prevailing in the new country [4], suggest that aspects of lifestyle or the environment are major determinants of breast cancer risk. A study of population-attributable risks has estimated that at least 45% to 55% of breast cancer cases in the United States may be explained by the following factors: advanced age at the time of the first full-term pregnancy, nulliparity, family history of breast cancer, higher socioeconomic status, earlier age at menarche, and prior benign breast disease [5].
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Russo, J., Russo, I.H. (2004). Epidemiological Considerations in Breast Cancer. In: Molecular Basis of Breast Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18736-0_1
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