1. Introduction

Breast cancer is the most common gynecological tumor in women [1, 2]. Actually, the highest breast cancer incidence appears in high-income regions: population of North America, in population of Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand [3]. In fact, in developed countries, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women of 35–64 years of age. Each year, about 22% of new cancer cases diagnosed in women are breast cancer [4]. However, 17–36% of all breast cancers occur in women under the age of 40 [5].

The rapid increase in the incidence of breast cancer is a new social challenge as a result of a large number of risk factors, among them genetic causes and altered socio-economical conditions

> © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

such as occupational exposure, rotating shift work and environmental factors (increased atmospheric pollution, sedentary lifestyle, and inadequate nutritional habits combined with an unbalanced diet). Other risk factors to be considered are lower age at menarche (below 10 years), late maternal age at first full-term pregnancy (over the age 30–40 years), and short periods of breastfeeding [6].

Authors Title Year Design Conclusions

Influence of estrogen plus progestin on breast cancer and mammography in healthy postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Trial.

hyperprolactinemia caused by antipsychotics (Neuroleptics).

Elevated prolactin levels in patients with schizophrenia: mechanisms and related adverse effects.

possible explanation for the negative association.

Multiple births, sex of children and subsequent breast-cancer risk for the mothers: a prospective study in Norway.

Apoptosis induced by a human

milk protein

2001 Literature review

Breastfeeding and Reduced Risk of Breast Cancer in Women: A Review of Scientific Evidence

2003 Randomized clinical trial

2012 Literature review

2003 Literature review

1992 Literature review

1995 Prospective study

1995 Experimental study

Clemon M, Goss P. Estrogen and the risk of breast cancer.

Vyas U. Risk of breast Cancer due to

Levine RS, Dolin P. Pregnancy and breast cancer: a

Chlebowski RT, Hendrix SL, Langer RD, Stefanick ML, Gass M, Lane D, et al.

Halbreich U, Kinon BJ, Gilmore JA, Kahn LS.

Albrektsen G, Heuch I,

Håkansson A, Zhivotovsky B, Orrenius S, Sabharwal H,

Kvåle G.

Svanborg C.

when the mothers are nonsmokers.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72688

breast density on mammography, and bone mineral density, may prove to be useful tools for assessing a woman's risk of breast cancer.

Although a relation between exposure to estrogen and the risk of breast cancer has been identified in specific groups of women, we cannot accurately predict the risk in an individual woman. Clinical markers of exposure to estrogen, such as serum estrogen concentrations,

57

Relatively short-term combined estrogen plus progestin use may stimulate breast cancer growth and hinder breast cancer diagnosis.

Some reports suggest that neuroleptics and other dopamine antagonists increase the risk of breast cancer due to hyperprolactinemia. There are other reports which suggest that they may decrease the risk of cancer especially rectum, colon and prostate.

Elevated prolactin levels may play important roles, both direct and indirect, in various pathologic states, including

Larger studies are needed to demonstrate the preventive effect of pregnancy against the development of breast cancer.

There was a slightly lower risk of breast cancer among women ever having had a multiple birth than among women with

A component of milk in a particular physical state– multimeric alpha-lact-albumin– is a potent Ca(2+)-elevating and apoptosis-inducing agent with broad, yet selective, cytotoxic

breast cancer.

singletons only.

activity.

In the last years, different breast cancer prevention studies have been carried out internationally. Their main objective was to evaluate how a woman's chance of developing breast cancer was affected by breastfeeding as well as by pregnancy and childbirth. The results of these studies provide evidence about the influence of hormonal and reproductive factors in the development of breast cancer [7–9].
