Celebrities, athletes, businesses and medical facilities all over the country are showing their support and raising awareness about breast cancer.

Meanwhile the doctors and scientists are doing their part to find ways to prevent and cure the world of this devastating illness.

Recent studies show that women may be able to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer by up to two-thirds by eating certain foods and keeping their weight down.

There are five foods in particular that appear to be quite helpful in preventing the disease.

These foods include salmon, extra virgin olive oil, broccoli, parsley and coffee. The exact amounts and individual effects are not available at this time, but each has shown to have a significant affect in either preventing or alleviating the illness. These studies are hopeful in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer and help to educate women on how to protect their health.

Foods That Can Help In Breast Cancer Prevention

The study took almost 6,000 Swedish women who were between the ages of 50-74 and found that the women who drank 5 or more cups a coffee per day had the lowest incidence of breast cancer.

The reason that coffee can help reduce breast cancer is because it helps reduce the risk of developing estrogen-negative cancer receptors. However, it is important to note that obesity, lack of exercise and many other factors play a role in developing breast cancer.

Can Coffee Protect Against Breast Cancer?

Made of tungsten and silicone, Xoft, Inc.’s Axxent FlexiShield Mini works to protect healthy tissue when radiation is administered in combination with surgery. The FDA announced, however, that tungsten is being detected in chest muscles and breast tissue. Although there’s no evidence that tungsten poses serious health threats, the FDA’s website says that particles left behind after surgery are being “mistaken for suspicious calcifications during follow up X-rays or scans.”

The Axxent FlexiShield Mini has been categorized as an FDA Class I recall which is “the most serious type of recall and involves situations in which there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.”

After 50 years of breast implant surgery, there appears to be a new reason for concern looming on the horizon! Reports surfacing indicate a potential link between implants and an extremely rare form of blood cancer known as ALCL (anaplastic large cell lymphoma)! According to reports only 60 cases have been confirmed around the globe with only 1 of those being termed ‘life threatening’ and believed to affect only 3 in 100 million women.

Questions are being raised by the FDA regarding this issue along with FDA mounting a campaign to include this warning on implant packaging and to urge plastic surgeons to discuss the potential risk with women as a standard part of pre-surgical consultation.

Once cancer enters the bloodstream it goes everywhere the blood flows posing the question is that new look worth the risk? Is reconstructive surgery worth the potential for becoming the next confirmed case statistic?

FDA Say's Chances Of Breast Cancer Is Increased With Breast Implants

As researchers continue to study breast cancer they have found over and over again that breast density is a key factor in getting the cancer.

Studies continue to show that the denser the breasts are, the higher the risk of getting the disease. They hope that these findings will lead to better ways to detect and treat the disease.

Until now, breast density has only been noted during a mammogram as a way to distinguish how hard the test will be to read. The denser the breast is the harder the tests are to read. Doctors have noted for a long time that this density is closely related to cancer occurrence but have not utilized this information. Women are not even told what their density is when it is determined.

Many medical professionals acknowledge the link but have stated that using this information, or providing it to the women will only cause confusion and fear since other factors are also used to determine risk.

This, however, should not be the case. The more information that a doctor or the female patient has about the potential for cancer, the more likely they will be to pursue a course of action to prevent or treat that cancer.

The connection to cancer in relevance to breast density was first discovered in the 1970’s. It has taken nearly 40 years for the medical community to begin to accept this tell-tale sign of cancer risk. Women around the world can only hope that this information is now embraced and used to further advance the treatment of breast cancer.

Study Links Breast Density To Breast Cancer

Ruth Travis at the University of Oxford set out to learn more with the help of over 17,000 post-menopausal women — around 700 or more with breast cancer. What her researchers wanted to know was whether DNA that was slightly skewered — twelve aberrant genes thought to add to cancer risks — had any connection.

Blood samples were taken, information was gathered as to their lifestyles: smoking, number of children, miscarriages, age of puberty, how young when first child was born, body mass, hormone therapy, and an important factor, alcohol consumption and at what age of menopause.

Nothing positive showed up for genes being a contributing factor. The two well known genes the BRCA1 and BRCA2 did not enter into the study. They are strongly related to breast cancer but are rarer involvements. Travis’s study was to find out more random often overlooked breast cancer connections and to answer some questions being asked about genes and life styles.

The worth of the study is to put women’s minds at ease over pre-determined blueprints for cancer risks and the lifestyle of women. It is to conclusively state that how one lives and what one does or does not do is more a factor in breast cancer than anything else. Both she and her co-author Jane Green of Oxford are in agreement over the findings.

Breast cancer is the second most cause of death of women worldwide, following after lung cancer. It most often starts in the lining of the milk ducts, and if not detected and eradicated, will move on to other parts of the body. Survival rate is good with adequate treatment of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Life Style Choices Contribute To Breast Cancer Risk

In July of 2009, during the filming of NBC’s “Parenthood” (in which Tierney was starring), the show unexpectedly postponed production. On July 13th, 2009, it was announced that Tierney had breast cancer and would be leaving the cast in order to receive treatment. In January of 2010, her publicist announced that Tierney had finished treatement.

The 44 year-old actress will be return to television in 2011 starring as Kelly McPhee in the series “Rescue Me”. Last year, Tierney guested in the TV show as Tommy’s (Dennis Leary) love interest. Filming of the show’s last two seasons began earlier this year.

Currently Tierney is currently working with the Wooster Group (a New Yor City based theater company) in the stage play “North Atlantic” which made it’s debut in New York on March 10.

Tierney was recruited to star in the television series ‘Parenthood’ but had to drop out of the project just two and a half weeks before filming for the project was set to begin. NBC pushed back the season opener of the series stating they were unable to release details due to the medical evaluation that the actress was receiving. Although it was announced by mid July that the actress would be undergoing surgery to treat the tumor in her breast, NBC announced in September that her role in ‘Parenthood’ would be granted to Lauren Graham of ‘Gilmore Girls’ fame.

Tierney was previously married to fellow actor Billy Morrissette, best known for his role as rambunctious Mazz Mazzilli in ‘Pump Up the Volume’. Tierney starred in the television series ‘News Radio’ and as Abby Lockhart in ‘ER’.

The actress will be making her television return by reprising her role as Kelly McPhee in the Fox series ‘Rescue Me’. The series follows the life of firefighter Tommy Gavin. Due to how the show is being filmed, Tierney’s character will not appear on screen until 2011.

Navratilova said it was her ’9/11.’ She said it was a real shock for her to receive the diagnosis. She still plans to work as one of the commentators for the French Open. The event will be held in Paris and Navratilova will be undergoing radiation treatment at the time.

The National Institutes of Health state that there are more than 50,000 women who are given the diagnosis of DCIS each year. The cancer is a result of abnormal cells which have not left the milk duct in order to penetrate breast tissue. The problem is resolved by removing this because it can later be a cause of developing invasive cancer. After being diagnosed with DCIS it is noted that only about two per cent of the patients die within the following ten years.

Navratilova won a record 167 singles titles. She was ranked as Number 1 for 331 weeks. Although she retired in 1994 she returned in 2000 and played the first-round at Wimbledon.

Mammograms along with better types of treatment and early detection have already lowered the rates of breast cancer. Now the emphasis should be put on diet and physical activity as ways to further lower the statistics of breast cancer. This is according the head of epidemiology at the University of Milan, Carlo La Vecchia. The results were released at a conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Exercise and the intake of food can now be added to a cessation of smoking and keeping out of the sun as measures to be taken to decrease the cases of breast cancer. This contradicts those who still insist that genes are the predominant determinant in who gets breast cancer. The people at the conference said that genes are beyond anyone’s control and the emphasis should not be placed on genes. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. More exercise will convert the fat into muscle.