There are many factors that can increase a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer. Being female, increasing age and family history are the main risk factors for breast cancer.
Clinical resources
- Advice about familial aspects of breast and ovarian cancer: a guide for health professionals
Publication date: February 2006
A guide for health professionals, including GPs, that can be used to assess a woman’s risk of breast cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer.
Other information on this topic
- NBOCC position statement – Hormone replacement therapy and risk of breast cancer (Publication date: July 2008)
- Evidence review – Risk of invasive breast cancer in women exposed to diethylstilbestrol in utero: A review of the evidence (Publication date: February 2008; evidence to December 2006)



