The Cleavage Countdown: 8 Facts About Breasts

Breast Lumps

Feeling a lump in her breast can be the scariest moment in a woman’s life. About one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point, most after age 50. There is no one type of breast cancer — many tumors are sensitive to the hormone estrogen, but some aren’t; some express specific genes such as HER2 that respond to targeted drug treatment, while others do not. Certain genes increase a person’s risk factor for cancer, the most common being mutated versions of two genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2. Alcohol use, delayed childbirth, obesity and exposure to radiation also increase the risk for cancer.

Although it’s 100 times less frequent than in women, breast cancer can strike men, too. Just as men have vestigial nipples, they also have a little bit of breast tissue in the form of milk ducts that don’t develop during puberty like a woman’s do. These ducts can be susceptible to cancer.