Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about breast cancer.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash breast cancer

or in the breast surgery section of the Zero to Finals Surgery Book. So let's get

straight into it. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the UK. It mostly affects

women and it's rare in men and about 1% of UK cases are in men. Around 1 in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

So what are the risk factors for breast cancer? Firstly being female and remember that 99% of

breast cancers occur in females. Increased lifetime estrogen exposure will increase the risk of

breast cancer and this will apply to women who have an the risk of breast cancer, and this will

apply to women who have an earlier onset of menstrual periods and a later onset of menopause,

meaning that they spend more of their life in the reproductive years with higher estrogen levels.

Other risk factors are more dense breast tissue and more glandular tissue in the breast,

obesity, smoking and family history, particularly first-degree relatives.

The combined contraceptive pill gives a small increased risk of breast cancer,

but the risk returns to normal 10 years after stopping the pill.

Hormone replacement therapy, or H-R-T, increases the risk of breast cancer, particularly

combined hormone replacement therapy, containing both estrogen and progesterone.

Let's talk about some of the genetics linked to breast cancer.

Braca, spelt BRCA, refers to the breast cancer gene. The brachar genes are tumor suppressor genes,

and mutations in these genes lead to an increased risk of breast cancer,

as well as ovarian and other cancers. The Bracca 1 gene is on

chromosome 17. In patients with a faulty Bracca 1 gene, around 70% will develop breast cancer

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