Prevention of breast cancer

The best therapy for cancer is prevention. Primary prevention involves health promotion and risk reduction in the general population so that invasive cancers do not develop. These primary preventive measures include the cessation of smoking, lifestyle and diet modification, vitamins and micronutrients supplementation. Identification of genetic risk, understanding of carcinogenesis, development of effective screening tools, avoiding risk factors and effective chemoprevention can lead to decreased morbidity and mortality of cancers in general and more importantly breast cancer. Secondary prevention is the identification and treatment of premalignant or subclinical cancers. Screening by means of mammography is a typical example of secondary prevention. Tertiary prevention is defined as symptoms control and rehabilitation. These definitions may become less useful in the future as they do not account for the new incoming data such as molecular data.