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No one knows the exact causes of breast cancer. Doctors can seldom explain why one woman gets breast cancer and another does not.
Doctors do know that bumping, bruising, or touching the breast does not cause breast cancer. And breast cancer is not contagious. No one can "catch" this disease from another person.
However, research has shown that women with certain risk factors are more likely than others to develop breast cancer. A risk factor is anything that increases a person's chance of developing a disease. Studies have found the following risk factors for breast cancer:
- Age: The chance of getting breast cancer goes up as a woman gets older. A woman over age 60 is at greatest risk. This disease is very uncommon before menopause.
- Personal history of breast cancer: A woman who has had breast cancer in one breast has an increased risk of getting this disease in her other breast.
- Family history: A woman's risk of breast cancer is higher if her mother, sister, or daughter had breast cancer, especially at a young age (before age 40). Having other relatives with breast cancer on either her mother's or her father's side of the family may also increase a woman's risk.
- Certain breast changes: Some women have cells in the breast that look abnormal under a microscope. Having certain types of abnormal cells (atypical hyperplasia or lobular carcinoma in situ [LCIS]) increases the risk of breast cancer.
- Genetic alterations: Changes in certain genes (BRCA1, BRCA2, and others) increase the risk of breast cancer. In families in which many women have had the disease, genetic testing can sometimes show the presence of specific genetic changes. Health care providers may suggest ways to try to reduce the risk of breast cancer, or to improve the detection of this disease in women who have these changes in their genes. The Cancer Information Service can provide printed material about genetic testing.
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