The female hormone estrogen is “fuel” for about 80% of breast cancers in women who’ve gone through menopause.
“Menopause itself doesn’t boost the risk for breast cancer, but growing older does,” says breast medical oncologist Rachel Layman, M.D. “The longer a woman’s body has accumulated estrogen during her lifetime, the greater her risk will be.”
Drugs called aromatase inhibitors can stop the body from making estrogen...

Hormones control nearly all of our bodily functions, from growth and development to emotions, sexual function and even sleep. But hormones...
Breasts come in all shapes and sizes, but did you know they can also vary in density? Breasts are composed of fat and glandular breast tissue...
Could getting a COVID-19 vaccine affect the results of your mammogram or other diagnostic imaging exams?
Physicians at MD Anderson are seeing an uptick in mammograms and other diagnostic imaging exams showing potential findings that can be confused with cancer in patients who’ve recently received one of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
This is due to a common side effect of the COVID-19 vaccines...

Regular screening mammograms detect breast cancer early when they are easiest to treat successfully. But can a screening test called...
Whether you’re facing a cancer diagnosis, want to better understand your risk or celebrating life after cancer, you likely have questions...
There’s so much information surrounding cancer and diet that it can be hard to separate the myths from the facts. That’s especially true when...
In 2016, I found out that I had inherited a genetic mutation known as Lynch Syndrome from my mother, who’d died 26 years earlier from cancer...
As a cancer caregiver, you’ve probably been told it’s important to take care of your own physical and mental health, too. But sometimes that...
Susan Gilchrist, M.D., loves to take on a challenge and to build things. Her latest passion is building a program that helps cancer patients...