MANY WOMEN substantially overestimate their risk of getting breast cancer following recent high-profile breast cancer awareness campaigns and all the media attention given to the subject, new research has found.
As a result many experience inappropriate levels of distress.
The finding comes from a study of almost 1,000 women attending the breast clinic at University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG) over a 12-month period.
It established that up to 40 per cent of women in their 40s overestimated their risk of getting breast cancer.
Prof Michael Kerin, professor of surgery at NUI Galway, said around one in 12 women in Ireland will get breast cancer, but many of the women in the study thought they were at a significantly higher risk.
“We compared their true risk of getting breast cancer with what they perceived as being their risk and we found that a significant proportion of them overestimated their risk overall,” he said.
“And their assessment of their risk of getting breast cancer was less accurate than their assessment of their risk of getting cardiovascular or other diseases.”
The study, which was presented at the annual Sir Peter Freyer Surgical Symposium in Galway yesterday, found that most knowledge people have about breast cancer comes from the press rather than from professional sources.
Prof Kerin said the message from the research was that there is a definite need to educate the public about the real risks of getting breast cancer.