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Risk Assessment Counseling

The knowledgeable and compassionate physicians at Saint Vincent Medical Group can provide our patients with breast cancer risk assessment in Worcester and central Massachusetts. Knowing your risk for breast cancer can provide important insight into measures you should take for screening and prevention, which can help to reduce the likelihood of dying from breast cancer.

To assess breast cancer risk, our breast health specialists in central Massachusetts look at how many risk factors a patient has, and how much those factors increase a patient's risk. There are a few factors that can increase a patient's risk by a lot, including having a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, but most known factors have a small or modest risk. While breast cancer risk assessment tools can help to estimate risk, they can’t definitively determine whether or not a patient will develop breast cancer. Some of the factors that are used to determine risk include:

  • Age
  • Race/ethnicity
  • High BMI
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Smoking
  • Age of first period
  • Late menopause
  • Age at the time of first birth (or has not given birth)
  • Family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, or other hereditary breast and ovarian syndrome-associated cancer
  • Number of past breast biopsies
  • Number of breast biopsies showing atypical hyperplasia or lobular carcinoma in situ
  • Menopausal hormone therapy with estrogen and progestin
  • Dense breasts on mammography
  • Prior exposure to high-dose therapeutic chest irradiation between the ages of 10 and 30

Based on your determined risk for developing breast cancer, our physicians will make a recommendation on the frequency at which breast cancer screenings should be performed. While breast cancer risk assessment can’t determine whether or not you will develop breast cancer, it can help you and your physician develop a plan for screening and improve your health outcomes if you do develop it.

Let the physicians at Saint Vincent Medical Group provide you with comprehensive breast health care, along with care for all other aspects of your health. Call us today at (888) 353-1932 to learn more or to schedule a consultation.