Cancer: The many-headed beast

This story was originally titled "Cancer: The Many-Headed Beast" in the October 2009 issue. Subscribe to Canadian Living today and never miss an issue!

Ask any woman – worrying about cancer can take up a lot of mental energy. But for all the anxiety around breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancer, many promising new surgical approaches, drugs and other discoveries are improving survival rates and women's quality of life, and best of all, preventing the onset of cancer.

"There's generally a sense of optimism," says Dr. Amit Oza, a senior staff physician and professor of medicine at Canada's leading cancer institute, Princess Margaret Hospital, in Toronto. Here's what you need to know and how you can reduce your risk of the most common female cancers.

Breast cancer
It's the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Canadian women (after lung cancer), according to the Canadian Cancer Society. The good news is that 87 per cent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer make it to the five-year mark, and death rates have fallen in every age group since the mid-1990s.

Who's most at risk
Women over 50; women with the BRCA 1 or 2 mutations; those who have a first-degree relative (mother, daughter or sister) with breast cancer; women who have ovarian cancer; or those who had their first child after 30.

Best ways to decrease your risk
• Drink less. Even a few glasses of wine with dinner can increase your chance of developing breast cancer by 13 per cent, says a recent British study.

• Manage your weight and exercise. "Maintaining a healthy body weight helps reduce your risk, and exercise is a huge part of that," says MJ DeCoteau, executive director of Rethink Breast Cancer, a Toronto-based charity that offers support to young breast cancer patients.

• Change your diet. Toronto naturopathic doctor Jill Shainhouse advocates a low-estrogen diet, which means cutting back on fatty animal products, such as red meat. She also suggests adding flax to your diet (to remove estrogen from your body) and eating more cruciferous vegetables like broccoli.

• Breast-feed. It reduces the amount of estrogen in your body and delays the return of your period. "The longer the duration of uninterrupted menstrual cycles, the greater the increase in the risk of breast cancer," says Dr. Ivo Olivotto, head of the radiation therapy program at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver.

• Do breast self-exams and make sure you also have your breasts examined by a health-care professional. Though self-exams were controversial a few years ago, experts now recommend monthly checks.

Page 1 of 4 - Read page two to find out what you should talk to your doctor about.