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The breast cancer charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer is encouraging primary healthcare professionals to take a more pro-active approach to encouraging breast awareness among women. Sarah Cant explains what the message should be and why early detection of breast cancer is key
Keywords
* Breast cancer
* Breast screening
* Women's health
* Health promotion
* Patients: education
With nearly 46,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK, it is this country's most common cancer, even though it is rarely diagnosed in men. It accounts for nearly one in three of all female cancer cases (Cancer Research UK 2005). However, research carried out by breast cancer charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer over the past three years shows that UK women remain confused about what they should be looking out for when they check themselves. Although most women identify breast lumps as a sign of the disease, they have limited knowledge of the other signs and symptoms (Breakthrough Breast Cancer 2006, 2007, 2008).
The research also indicated that most UK women aged over 50 are unaware that breast cancer risk increases with age. Although one in nine UK women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their life, the disease is very rare in younger women. Only one in 15,000 women aged under 25 will receive a breast cancer diagnosis, and 80 per cent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed in women aged over 50 (Cancer Research UK 2005).
Breast cancer is a complex disease and, as all of the causes are still not known, health professionals cannot yet give the majority of women specific advice to help them definitely reduce their risk of developing it. We can tell women that by maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly and limiting their alcohol intake they may possibly reduce their risk.
Survival rates have increased in recent years. The estimated relative 20-year survival rate for women with breast cancer in England and Wales has increased from 44.4 per cent in the early 1990s to 64.5 per cent for women diagnosed between 2001 and 2003 (Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2005). These improvements in survival rates have been attributed to three factors:
* The introduction of the NHS Breast Screening Programme.
* Improvements in...