ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Each year, nearly 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. More than 40,000 will die from the disease.Even though public health campaigns have increased breast cancer awareness, myths remain about the disease.

Denise Otter has been dealing with breast cancer her entire life."My mother had breast cancer and she was diagnosed when she was about 30," she said. Her grandmother also suffered from the disease.So when Otter felt a lump in her breast five years ago, she knew exactly what it was.&"It sounds bad but I kind of expected it to happen at some point in my life," Otter said. "So it didn't really hit me too hard."

Unlike Otter, most women don't expect a breast cancer diagnosis. According to Dr. Denise Farleigh, many patients don't look out for the disease, because they have no family history.

"Everyday we hear from women that we've just performed a procedure on, ‘I can't possibly have breast cancer, there's no one in my family with breast cancer,'" she said.

Genetic predisposition is only one myth surrounding the disease.In fact according to Dr. Farleigh, 75 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer every year don't have a family history. One in eight women without a family history of breast cancer is at risk for developing it at some point in her life.

Another misconception about the disease is that a lump must be present or felt in the breast to be diagnosed. Some women believe if a mammogram comes back clean, they are cancer-free Farleigh says the tests are looking for the early signs of breast cancer, not necessarily lumps.

"What we're really trying to find is early breast cancer, that's where mammography really shines. It can find cancers that you can't feel or your doctor can't feel."

She says women age 40 and older should get a screening every year even if their previous mammograms looked healthy.

Starting young is the key and early detection is paramount, according to the American Cancer Society.Women in their 20s and 30s are encouraged to do a monthly breast self exam and receive a clinical breast exam about once every three years.