Survival rates really depending on a combination of health status, age, stage of the cancer and other factors. See your physician for your own personal health assessment. Risk is increased with age, such that 80 percent of women with breast cancer are over age 50. Women who have a history of breast cancer in the family, who never have had children, who had a first child after age 30, who began menstruation before age 12 or who complete menopause after age 55 are also at increased risk of breast cancer. Heavy alcohol consumption and obesity have also been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer.
Genes contain the hereditary information that is passed down from parent to child.
They serve as the blueprint for many features. Everyone has two copies of a gene called BRCA1 in the cells of their body, one inherited from their mother and one from their father. In most people, both BRCA1 genes function normally. But in some individuals, one copy carries a misspelling. This change, or alteration, can occur at hundreds of different sites along the BRCA1 gene.