Did you know, everyone is at risk of breast cancer? Risk factors for breast cancer can impact you and every person you know. However, we don’t know why one person gets breast cancer and another doesn’t. It's likely a combination of unique factors that cause cells in the breast to become cancerous. It’s unclear why some of these factors might cause cancer in one person, but not in another. And having a certain risk factor doesn’t mean that you will get breast cancer. It’s complicated!

Researchers have found a number of things that can increase or decrease someone’s chance of getting breast cancer. These are called risk factors. A risk factor can be related to your genetics, your health and medical history, reproductive history, as well as your lifestyle or environment.

Some risk factors have a small impact on breast cancer risk, while others have a larger impact. Because breast cancer is a complex disease, it’s hard to know how a certain set of risk factors will affect you or anyone you know. For example, having one or more risk factors does not mean a person will get breast cancer. While we have control over some risk factors, like making healthy lifestyle choices, others are out of our control, like our age. And some risk factors are still unknown. Since there are many factors that are linked to breast cancer risk, and we can only control some of them, we all can’t avoid some amount of risk. The most common risk factors for breast cancer are being born female and getting older. As a woman gets older, her risk of breast cancer increases. There are other known risk factors that are linked to a high risk of breast cancer including having a BRCA1 or BRCA2 inherited gene mutation. But most risk factors are linked to a small or modest increase in risk. Learning about your breast cancer risk can empower you to make important decisions and take charge of your health. Talk with your health care provider about your risk factors and any next steps you can take. For example, there are risk assessment tools that can be used by you and your health care provider to learn more about your risk, such as the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool, which is also known as the Gail Model. This tool can be used to estimate breast cancer risk based on 7 key factors. Other risk assessment tools, such as the Tyrer-Cuzik model and the BOADICEA model, use information about BRCA1 and BRCA2 inherited gene mutations and other factors to estimate breast cancer risk. If you use these tools, it's important to discuss the results with your health care provider. Then together, you can make decisions about your breast care. Susan G. Komen has information to help you learn about your risk of breast cancer. You can start by visiting the Risk Factors section on komen.org. There you can learn about understanding risk and the factors linked to breast cancer risk and those that aren’t. You can learn about risk factors that are under study too. You can also access our Risk Factors table that categorizes factors based on how they affect breast cancer and the strength of the scientific evidence. You can also view our free downloadable educational resources on Risk Factors.