Advocate perspective : Advancing science-based approaches to breast cancer prevention
✍ Scribed by Susan G. Komen for the Cure
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2007
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 41 KB
- Volume
- 109
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0008-543X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
A s an organization that promotes the importance of evidence- based medicine, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure is eager to see science yield more answers that will eventually lead to new ways to prevent breast cancer. We have made progress in the US in expanding life-saving access to breast cancer screening and treatment but not in substantially reducing incidence. Many of the identified risk factors, including family history of the disease, age at menarche and menopause, parity, breast density, and age at a first full-term pregnancy, cannot be readily modified. Pursuing new evidence of risk factors that can be changed is a crucial priority if we are to achieve our vision of a world without breast cancer. The preliminary report this year that US breast cancer incidence declined by 7%-14,000 women-in 2003 and that the drop may be due to reduced use of hormone replacement therapy 1 reinforces our commitment to studies of other exogenous chemicals, behaviors that affect hormones, and other factors with the potential to significantly affect risk for many thousands of women.
To advance that goal, in 2004, Komen commissioned the Environmental Factors and Breast Cancer Science Review with Massachusetts-based Silent Spring Institute and their collaborating partners at Harvard University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the University of Southern California to collect and assess existing published scientific reports on possible links between specific environmental factors and breast cancer. In its first year the review targeted epidemiologic studies on environmental pollutants, dietary factors, body size, physical activity, and interactions of these factors with various genetic polymorphisms, and the group reviewed toxicology studies to identify chemicals that cause mammary tumors in animals. Reviews are currently under way on additional topic areas: the toxicology of endocrine disruptors, perinatal and early life exposures, nonhormonal pharmaceuticals, tobacco smoke, occupational exposures, light at night, and psychological stress. Topics were chosen to reflect areas of active research with particular promise for identifying new opportunities for prevention.
The chief goal of the Silent Spring Institute study was to evaluate published research to determine what is known and what is not Address for reprints: Susan G. Komen for the Cure,