In this article you'll find the answers to your questions about risk factors, prevention, and causes of breast cancer. A risk factor is anything that increases a person's chance of getting a disease.
Different cancers have different risk factors.
For example, unprotected exposure to strong sunlight is a risk factor for skin cancer. Smoking is a risk factor for cancers of the lung, mouth, larynx, bladder, kidney, and several other organs. But having a risk factor, or even several, does not necessarily mean that a person will get the disease. Some women with one or more breast cancer risk factors never develop the disease, while most women with breast cancer have no apparent risk factors. Even when a patient has a risk factor, there is no way to prove that it actually caused her cancer.