Epidemiologic Characteristics of the Breast Cancer in Korea

Breast cancer has been the most common cancer among Korean women since 2001 and will continue to increase for the next 20 years, at the least. Many of the established risk factors are linked to the exposure to female hormones: breast cancer risk is increased by early menarche, late menopause, nulliparity and later first full-term pregnancy, and obesity in postmenopausal women. In addition, other established risk factors such as alcohol consumption and family history of breast cancer are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Physical activity, breast feeding, higher number of children, and fruit and vegetable consumption seem to reduce breast cancer risk. Smoking also probably increases the risk. Both ora contraceptives in premenopausal women and hormonal replacement therapy in postmenopausal women may increase risk. Above-mentioned risk and protective factors were reported in Korean populations and the breast cancer risk by those factors is similar to that in western population. Currently, a study is being done in Korea to examine the associated risk, and population attributable risk of genetic variants in high penetrance genes including BRCA 1 and 2 and breast cancer risk among Koreans will be reported soon. Other studies conducted in Korea that investigated low penetrance genes have already been published. While the individual risk was small, there was an effect from interaction with environmental factors. Numerous Korean studies about these risk factors helped to establish a model to predict individual breast cancer risk that is utilized in the Personalized Preventive and Predictive medicine.