6 myths about breast cancer that need busting

Breast cancer is all about the place, and we think we know all there is to know about it. But a lot about cancer of the breast is shrouded in myths that need breaking. A few of them you wouldn’t believe. Mammograms cause breast cancer. A mammogram is a definitive screening a woman undergoes once […]

Breast cancer is all about the place, and we think we know all there is to know about it.

But a lot about cancer of the breast is shrouded in myths that need breaking.

A few of them you wouldn’t believe.

Mammograms cause breast cancer.

A mammogram is a definitive screening a woman undergoes once she finds and lump and has to determine if the lump is cancerous or benign. They involve some level of radiation, and the radiation has prompted many to think it actually causes cancer. Not so, says Dr Foluso Ademuyiwa, an associate professor and medical oncologist at Siteman Cancer Centre.

The level of radiation involved in mammograms is extremely low and there is no clinical data to support that it causes cancer.

You are too young to have breast cancer.

Actually, you are never too young or too old to have breast cancer. Women presenting with breast cancer can be as young as 19 and as old as 92.

Family immunity.

The notion that you cannot have breast cancer if it doesn’t run in the family is wrong. Women have been known to have breast cancer, even when no one else in their family has ever had it.

Lump is key

A lump doesn’t always signal breast cancer. Women with breast cancer don’t always find a lump. Inflammatory breast cancer, a separate type of the condition, doesn’t come with a lump.

Surgery makes it spread.

The notion that having a surgery to excise tumour from a breast cancer will make it burst and spread is another no-no. it doesn’t burst and spread, period.

Only women get it.

One risk for breast cancer is simply being a woman. But surprisingly, men do get breast cancer too. However, it is more common in women. In men, the chances are one in 1000 compared with one in eight for women. Men are more likely to have it, if the gene for it is passed on.