Studies have consistently indicated that exposure to high levels of radiation—like those received during cancer treatment—do increase breast cancer risk. For example, women treated with radiation therapy for Hodgkin’s disease have been reported to have about 2 to 4 times the risk of developing breast cancer compared to women who were never treated with radiation therapy for Hodgkin's.
In general, the higher the amount of radiation a woman is exposed to and the younger she was at exposure, the greater her risk. For example, the risk of developing breast cancer from therapeutic radiation exposure is very high if a woman is exposed before the age of 20, decreases as her age at exposure increases and is very small if she is exposed after the age of 40.
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