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Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women ages 35 to 54 and our risk is rising. In 1960, one in 20 developed breast cancer; today one in eight women will get it. Of those who have breast cancer, one in four will die.

Ongoing research is looking into the genetic causes of breast cancer, but we know heredity plays a role in less than 10 percent of cases. A full 80 percent of all cancers are thought to be related to environmental factors. This means we can reduce our risk to breast cancer. We can adopt a prevention strategy. But first we need to understand how breast cancer develops in the body and what the risk factors are.

This month - in part one of a four-part series on breast cancer - I will provide an overview of breast cancer and examine key risk factors. The Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Test will help you evaluate your own personal risk.

ABCs of Breast Cancer

Normal healthy cells go through a series of steps to ensure life. They grow, divide, and die in a carefully performed, predetermined symphony. During this highly complex process, the cell’s genetic code of DNA is duplicated and transferred to new cells. Normally this process takes place without error, but every once in a while a mistake occurs. Most mistakes are quickly repaired, but on occasion a mistake may miss detection and cells will be allowed to perform differently than usual. Normal cell conduct organizes cells into their correct location, turns growth off and on as required, and ensures that cells do not crowd each other.

Birth of a Cancer Cell

Cancer cells do not play by the rules. Cancer begins from normal cells that become renegades. These abnormal cells, also called malignant cells, turn the immune system against itself, multiply unchecked, steal nutrients, reroute blood supplies away from normal body functions and lack preprogrammed cell death (called apoptosis). Because these turncoat cells are similar to other healthy cells, often the immune system fails to detect and kill them. The cancer cells’ goal is to survive at all cost even if they kill their host.

What are the Causes of Cancer?

Defects in the genetic code of the cell are not the sole cause of cancer. The damage caused by pesticides, hormones, viruses, toxic agents, radiation, and too much stress is not, by itself, a clear cause. But cellular defects combined with environmental and lifestyle factors contribute to the development of cancer. This is why it is so important to define what external factors increase our risk of developing breast cancer.

According to Dr. Susan Love, author of Breast Book (Perseus Books Group, 1995), breast cancer is believed to be caused by a combination of genes that are mutated by carcinogens (cancer-causing agents), which cause uncontrolled growth in cells strictly confined to the ductal or lobular units of the breast. These are called precancerous lesions of the breast. Then, with additional mutations, these cells break out of the duct or lobule into the surrounding fat and tissue. It may only take one cell, but in its mutated form it can develop into an invasive tumour with its own blood supply and with the potential to spread (metastasize). Understanding the “true” risk factors for breast cancer is essential to preventing this process from occurring in the first place.

Samuel Epstein, MD, coauthor of The Breast Cancer Prevention Program (John Wiley and Sons Inc., 1997), believes there are twelve common but unpublicized risks for breast cancer compared to the three risk factors publicized by the Canadian Cancer Society. All twelve are included in the risk assessment test.

Estrogen - Friend or Foe?

At the top the list of risk factors for breast cancer are the use of the hormone estrogen and exposure to environmental toxic estrogens called xenoestrogens (pronounced “zeno”-estrogens). Xenoestrogens are found in soft plastic products, plastic wrap, medical plastics used in IV bags and oxygen tubing, pesticide-laden foods (fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat), dioxins, cosmetics, hair dyes, chemicals used to bleach feminine hygiene products, dry-cleaning chemicals, and nail polish.

Lorna Vanderhaeghe, BSc, is a health journalist who has been researching nutritional medicine for over 20 years. She is the author of several best-selling books. Her latest is No More HRT: Menopause, Treat the Cause (Fitzhenry, 2002). Go to hormonehelp.com for more information.

Source: alive #258, April 2004