How Important is A Woman Breast?

1. The average U.S. woman wears a size 40 D bra. This equates to about 3 lbs total or 1.5 lbs per breast.

2. In most women, the left breast is usually slightly larger than the right. Very few women have perfectly symmetrical breasts. A slight difference in size — up to 20 percent — between the right and left breast is normal. Sudden changes are not, though, and are reason to talk to your doctor.

3. Breasts normally grow for about two to four years after a girl gets her first period.

4. Breast cancer is the second deadliest cancer for women. Lung cancer is the first.

5. Men can get breast cancer too. There will be an estimated 2,190 new cases of male breast cancer in 2014. Peter Criss of the rock group Kiss is a breast cancer survivor.

6. Women can reduce their risk of breast cancer by watching their weight, quitting smoking, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol intake, and avoiding or limiting menopausal hormone replacement therapy.

7. The state with the highest incidence of breast cancer is Massachusetts. According the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are 139.5 new cases per 100,000 female residents in the state.

8. The state with the lowest incidence of breast cancer is Arkansas. The CDC reports 101.9 new cases per 100,000 female residents.

9. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has found evidence that night-shift work might be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer.

10. By the end of 2014, an estimated 232,670 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to have been diagnosed in American women. An additional 62,570 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer are expected as well.

11. Breast cancer can happen to anyone. Famous women who have battled breast cancer include: Gloria Steinem, Dawn Upshaw, Betty Ford, Judy Blume, Sheryl Crow, Kylie Monogue, Olivia Newton-John, Melissa Etheridge, Hoda Kotb, Robin Roberts, Joan Lunden, Giuliana Rancic, Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming, Carly Fiorina, Brigitte Bardot, Suzanne Somers, Kathy Bates, Ann Jillian, Kate Jackson, and Dihann Carroll.

12. Ancient Egyptians were the first to document the disease, more than 3,500 years ago. Ancient writings on papyrus contain descriptions of conditions that are consistent with modern descriptions of breast cancer. One ancient Egyptian surgeon describes “bulging tumors” in the breast and states that “there is no cure.”

13. For 98 percent of the female population — those without a high risk of breast cancer, based on genetics — the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that annual mammograms be done starting at age 40.

14. The first radical mastectomy was performed in the late 1800s by William S. Halsted, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins and champion of newly discovered anesthetics.

15. Susan G. Komen was a young woman from Peoria, Ill., who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1977, at the age of 33. Komen died from the disease three years later. Her younger sister, Nancy Goodman Brinker, believed that Susan’s outcome might have been better if patients knew more about cancer and its treatment. She promised her sister that she would do everything she could to end breast cancer. The result was theSusan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, started in 1982.

16. Early detection is critical. When breast cancer is detected early, survival rates jump.  The American Cancer Society advises that you should have  a clinical breast exam (done by a doctor) every three years in your thirties. You should have a mammogram each year starting at age 40. More intensive screening is advisable for those at high risk due to family history. Between clinical exams, you should self-examine your breasts every month.

17. In 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act, which ensures that a woman’s health plan that covers mastectomy surgery must cover all stages of reconstruction to both the breast with cancer and the breast without cancer, if desired.

18. One in eight women will eventually be diagnosed with breast cancer.

19. Physicians determine the stage of a cancer at the time of diagnosis in order to create a treatment plan and determine the patient’s prognosis.  This is accomplished using radiographic studies (X-rays, ultrasound, MRI, and related tests) and biopsy or removal of the cancer, and often sampling of lymph nodes.  The stage is described as a range from pre-cancer (DCIS) to Stage IV (metastatic cancer — that which has spread to other areas of the body). The stage takes into account the size of a tumor, how deeply it has penetrated, whether it has invaded adjacent organs, how many lymph nodes it has metastasized to (if any), and whether it has spread to distant organs.

20. The staging of breast cancer defines the size of the tumor and extent of spread of a cancer. Stage I is a tumor up to 2 cm in diameter with negative lymph nodes. Stage II is a 2 to 5 cm tumor and positive nodes. Stage III is a less than 5 cm tumor, which may have spread to axillary lymph nodes or the chest wall. Stage IV is when the tumor has spread to distant sites.

21. There are several medical terms for breast. Mamm-o as in mammography; mast-o as in mastectomy; maz-o as in “amazon, ” which means “without a breast,” like the Amazon female warriors of Brazil who legendarily cut off their breasts for improved ability to shoot their bows.

22. Both men (1 in 18) and women (1 in 50) can have polythelia — one or more extra nipples (which are often mistakenly identified as moles). Any breast tissue, whether it appears in the standard location or elsewhere along the “milk line,” is vulnerable to the same diseases that affect typical breast tissue.

23. The breastfeeding rate is on the rise in the U.S., increasing by an average of 2 percentage points per year, according to the latest CDC statistics. Breastfeeding is most prevalent in the West, with Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California containing the largest percentage of mothers nursing for the highest number of months; the Southern states Mississippi, Louisiana, and West Virginia with the lowest percentage.

24. There are many different types of breast cancer.  Certain drugs that treat one type of cancer do not work with others.

25. Lumpectomy is the removal of part of the breast involved with cancer, along with a margin, or part of surrounding tissue.  A series of trials conducted by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) determined that the long-term outcome was similar in women with similar stages of disease when treated by mastectomy versus lumpectomy and radiation treatment.

26. An estimated 85 percent of breast cancers occur in women who have no family history of the disease. On the flip side, it is estimated that 12 to 15 percent of inherited mutations related to breast cancer can be attributed to BRCA or PALB genes.

27. Survival rates from breast cancer have been steadily improving. According to aggregated data by the National Cancer Institute’s SEER (Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results), the rate of death due to breast cancer has decreased by about 2 percentage points since 1990.

28. Breast augmentation with implants — filled either with silicone or saline — is still the most popular plastic surgery procedure for women. The American Society for Plastic Surgery reported that almost 300,000 augmentations with implants had been done in 2013. However, the number of breasts “lifts,” or mammoplasty procedures (women trying to improve the looks of their breasts without using an implant), is growing at twice the rate of implant procedures.

29.  Breasts come in lots of different shapes and sizes. Professionals working in the plastic and reconstructive surgery area have coined some unusual terms for some of the most common breast shapes: Tubular or “tube sock” breasts often result from breastfeeding; flat tires, the “saggy” breasts that look deflated with age or lots of nursing; “Snoopy” breasts, so-called because they resemble the profile of the famous Peanuts comic strip dog.

30. Although there is no such thing as perfection, some of the most famous bustlines have, not surprisingly, come from Hollywood. Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe…and many more since then (which, increasingly, are not real!).

31. Actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie stunned the world last year by announcing in a New York Times op-ed last that she hadundergone prophylactic mastectomies to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer.  Her admission that she was BRCA-positive led to a doubling of the number of women getting tested for this genetic defect in the following 6 months.

Elizabeth Chabner Thompson, MD, MPH, is a radiation oncologist and founder of BFFL Co (Best Friends for Life), a maker of recovery kits, surgical and recovery bras, and other products for patients undergoing mastectomy and other surgeries or treatments for cancer and other conditions.