Dr. Sandra Fryhofer - Your Health Matters - Rx For Breast Cancer

Most women fear breast cancer more than any other. With good reason: it will claim nearly 40,000 victims this year.

The strongest risk factors: age, and family history; especially if a first degree relative -- mother, daughter, or sister -- had it.

Dense breast tissue also increases risk, as does having had a breast biopsy - especially if it showed worrisome cells called atypical hyperplasia.

The U-S Preventive Services Task Force has new guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, on breast cancer Chemoprevention: taking medication to prevent cancer.

Your Health Matters with Dr. Sandra Fryhofer is a weekly series offering useful and timely information on health and well-being.

Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD, MACP, FRCP is a board certified doctor of internal medicine in Atlanta and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. She is on staff at Piedmont Hospital.