In the breast cancer awareness month, a new study suggests that predicting a woman’s risk for developing breast cancer will soon be as simple as undergoing a blood test. Women with hormone levels in the highest 25 % bracket for hormones estradiol, testosterone and DHEAS had a 50 percent to 107 percent greater chance for developing breast cancer in comparison to women in the lowest 25 %, said researchers from Harvard University’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.They said these tests would predict the chances of a woman getting cancer in the long term of up to 20 years. Around 800 patients with postmenopausal breast cancer who had not received hormone therapy were studied for the research.The researchers conducted blood hormone tests at two time points: between 1989 and 1990 and between 2000 and 2002. They matched each patient with two control groups who were not diagnosed with breast cancer. "We found that a single hormone level was associated with breast cancer risk for at least 16 to 20 years among postmenopausal women not using postmenopausal hormones," said the study’s main researcher Xuehong Zhang. Increased hormone levels, except for DHEAS, tracked closely with increased risk for receptor-positive breast cancer.How will this research help future generations of women? For one, it will help doctors identify high-risk women who would benefit from enhanced screening or preventive chemotherapy.