October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast Cancer Awareness Each year, about 210,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Many fewer women, around 40,000 each year, die from breast cancer Regular mammograms are the best tests doctors have to find breast cancer early, sometimes up to three years before it can be felt. When their breast cancer is found early, many women go on to live long and healthy lives. Breast cancer affects one in eight women during their lives. Breast cancer kills more women in the United States than any cancer except lung cancer. No one knows why some women get breast cancer, but there are a number of risk factors. Risks that you cannot change include * Age - the chance of getting breast cancer rises as a woman gets older * Genes - there are two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, that greatly increase the risk. Women who have family members with breast or ovarian cancer may wish to be tested. * Personal factors - beginning periods before age 12 or going through menopause after age 55 Other risks include being overweight, using hormone replacement therapy, taking birth control pills, drinking alcohol, not having children or having your first child after age 35 or having dense breasts.