It's estimated that nearly 180,000 U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. Outside of lung cancer, it's the leading cause of cancer-related death in U.S. women. Out of the 180,000 who are diagnosed, 40,000 will die from breast cancer.

Those stats are hard to read, and may make many scurry for information on how to prevent breast cancer. Performing self-checks and making the decision to have mammograms (which are questionable to some) are the results of such thinking. Anything that makes women more proactive to determining if they have breast cancer signs is a good thing.

What about menopausal or post-menopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a cause? HRT is a common treatment for dealing with menopausal symptoms (which can be quite disruptive to life), but if it can contribute to the potential for developing breast cancer, what course of action can be taken? A recent study detailed that breast cancer cases dropped with a decline of estrogen-progestin (HRT) treatments, and increased when these treatments were more plentiful. Is this a cause for concern? Hard to say, but it raised my eyebrow.