If a woman has a sister, aunt or mother suffering from breast cancer, she runs a higher risk of the deadly disease. Though family history is something that can not be changed, what she can do is modify her food habits and lifestyle to cut her own risk of the disease.

"If a woman does not have genetic risks of breast cancer and eats more vegetables instead of fatty foods, regularly exercises, takes the first baby before 30 years of age, breastfeeds children and does not drink alcohol or smoke, her risk of breast cancer is little," said cancer specialist Dr Habibullah

Talukder.

In today's globalised world, lifestyles are changing fast. Many women remain single, do not take children or breastfeed them and remain obese for eating rich food, all of which could be major reasons behind the high prevalence of breast cancer globally, he said.

Speaking to The Daily Star on the eve of Breast Cancer Awareness Day, being observed in Bangladesh today, Dr Talukder said mass education is a must to prevent breast cancer that annually affects 10.5 lakh women around the world.

Of them, 5.8 lakh women are of the

FROM PAGE 3 developed world while the rest are of the developing countries, according to the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer.

At global level, breast cancer is the second highest reason for cancer-related deaths after lung cancer. In developed countries, however, breast cancer, among the cancers, is the number one reason for women's deaths, it says.

Bangladesh does not have any national figure on breast cancer but analysis of a registry maintained by the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) between 2008 and 2010 found 26 percent of its women patients suffering from breast cancer, followed by 21 percent afflicted by cervical cancer.

Of all types of cancers, the percentage of women patients diagnosed with breast cancer at the NICRH between 2011 and 2013 is 28.9.

"This percentage is not national but it gives an indication of the rising breast cancer prevalence," said Dr Habibullah Talukder, head of cancer epidemiology department and associate professor at the NICRH.

Irrespective of the reason being genetic or not, another important issue is mass education about the issue.

Therefore, women aged 20 years or above should have regular check-ups for breast cancer.

"Its detection at the early stage can cure patients in over 95 percent of the cases," Talukder said.

Women can also look for the symptoms themselves.

According to the American Cancer Society, swelling of all or part of the breast, skin irritation or dimpling, breast pain, nipple pain or the nipple turning inward, redness, thickening of the nipple or breast skin, a nipple discharge other than breast milk and a lump in the underarm area are some symptoms of breast cancer.

"If one finds any of these symptoms, she should consult the doctor immediately,” said DrTalukder, who is also coordinator of Bangladesh Breast Cancer Awareness Forum, a platform of 21 government and nongovernment organisations.

The forum will organise campaigns on breast cancer, including road shows wearing pink clothes and bearing banners and distributing leaflets containing information on the disease and the means of prevention and cure during the whole month of October in and outside Dhaka.

"Awareness can save millions of lives," he said.