What causes breast cancer?

What causes breast cancer?

Richard E. Gould (Hematologist/Oncologist, Cedars-Sinai Outpatient Cancer Center) gives expert video advice on: What are the most common types of breast cancer?; What causes breast cancer?; Is breast cancer fatal? and more...

That's a difficult question to answer because there are so many different factors which go into how and why cancer develops. To break it down, the two most basic components are genetics and environment. Somebody is born with a certain genetic predisposition to cancer. For instance, if they have BRCA1 or BRCA1 mutations, they have a greater risk of developing breast cancer, and these are genetic mutations that people can inherit from their parents. In addition, environment plays a role. If somebody is exposed to a lot of oestrogen over their lifetime, it can increase their risk of developing breast cancer. In addition, if they're exposed to radiation, it can increase the risk of developing breast cancer. So, in other words, it's a play between somebody's genes and their ability to withstand environmental hits to those genes. That determines whether somebody's going to develop breast cancer over their lifetime or not. It's very difficult for any one individual to say exactly what it was that lead to them to develop breast cancer.