The Relevance of Established Risk Factors in Context to Indian Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting the females across the world and even in India. There has been an alarming rise in the incidence of breast cancer and there is an urgent need to control them by modifying the risk factors. Various risk factors with convincing evidence of causing breast cancer have been identified. These include increasing age, young age at first child birth, null parity, obesity, avoiding breast feeding, use of oral contraceptives and alcohol. However, the physique and the lifestyle of Indian breast cancer patients are quite different from their western counterparts. Various epidemiological studies from India do not show the presence of these risk factors in a convincing form. So, this review was done to evaluate the prevalence of risk factors in Indian breast cancer patients.