WP: U.S. Breast Cancer Rate Stabilizes

[DeepModem Mom]

U.S. Breast Cancer Rate Stabilizes
Scientists Are Unsure Whether This Is a Trend or an Aberration
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 7, 2006; Page A03

The decades-long rise in the rate of new breast cancer cases in American women appears to have leveled off, indicating that the nation may have reached a long-sought turning point in the battle against the feared malignancy.

After climbing steadily since the 1980s, the breast cancer rate stopped rising in 2001 and may have started to fall in 2003, according to the latest federal data. While it will take more years before it becomes clear whether the change marks the start of a lasting trend, the statistics appear to indicate a tantalizing shift, experts said....

***

The new report did not examine why breast cancer incidence would have plateaued, but Edwards and others said it could be the result of a combination of factors. Among them: The use of mammography appears to have peaked, the number of women delaying childbearing may have stabilized, and the use of hormones after menopause has plummeted....

***

Although the death rate from breast cancer has been dropping because of earlier diagnosis and improved treatment, the new numbers mark the first sign that the number of women getting breast cancer may have stopped increasing.

Whatever the cause, that would mark a milestone with major public health implications because of the large number of women diagnosed with the disease. Nearly 213,000 women find out they have breast cancer and nearly 41,000 die of the disease each year, making it the most common cancer in women and the second-leading cancer killer after lung cancer....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/06/AR2006090601128.html

[serryjw]

1. We will find out

in 10 years that it is a direct result of more vegetarians,less animal fatin diet, and more woman keeping their weight in check ...BUT They probably won't tell us

[Berry Cool]

3. Why is it always up to personal choices women make?

What about the environment?

[serryjw]

4. There will not be ONE

reason but diet is a big one.

[Demeter]

32. The Environment Is Far More Likely Cause

and that includes not only the chemicals in farming and industry, but also the effects of smoking and second-hand smoke. It depends on how many, and how strong, the insults are upon the genetic tendencies of each individual.

[Skittles]

11. sorry, but I immediately thought of Linda McCartney

:(

[Berry Cool]

12. Linda McCartney is an excellent example.

Vegetarian...vegan, I think. Didn't put a damn thing in her body, supposedly, that might not be good for her. Got one of the most aggressive forms of BC, killed her in just a few years.

[serryjw]

18. Not all tumors are created equal

some get on the Indy 500 and you never get them. They just divide and multiply too fast.The other question is was Linda's tumor estrogen positive or negative. One is much more difficult to treat than the other.

[susanna]

22. Especially if her vegan diet was high in soy...

...and she had an estrogen sensitive type of cancer.

From what I understand, and believe me, I am not an expert - soy intake introduces estrogen-like compounds into the body at an amazing rate. If you had an estrogen-sensitive breast cancer, you might not realize what was happening until too late.

[serryjw]

26. The controversy over Soy

happened after my time. There still seems to be a huge question on is it harmful or helpful. Pre vs post menopausal woman seem to be the question. Remember if you are pre-menopausal your estrogen levels are high anyway. That is one of the reasons that B/C is much more deadly for pre-menopausal woman.Read the 2nd article. This has been well known for years that Asian B/C rises when they leave Japan and the next generation adopts a 'western diet'.
http://www.healthcastle.com/soy-breastcancer.shtml
http://www.asianjournal.com/?c=174&a=15663

Saturated fat is linked to B/C
http://www.breastcancer.org/research_diet_071603.html

[susanna]

28. I will look at those links...

for sure. After my situation (had a BC scare in my early 30s) I certainly read everything I can about the subject.

My feelings about soy have to do with the number it has always done on me. I simply do not digest it (properly at least). I have no problem with fermented soy (sauce, tempeh, etc.), but the natural forms that are in many vegan foods wreak havoc with my system. I absolutely adore tofu, but only eat it about three times a year...because it doesn't sit well with me. I do wonder if it does not have hormonal implications in my situation...

I looked into it because of what happened to me, and I must say I am concerned about how much soy we are eating without truly understanding the hormonal repercussions. It is in many, many foods on the store shelves. Just look. (Even non-vegetarian/vegan ones!)

I had to go to home cooking from fresh ingredients a long time ago. There are too many things my body doesn't seem to "get." Soy was one of them. The good news is I've turned into a great cook. :-)

[serryjw]

29. I don't mean to minimize your scare

but too many doctors are alarmists. The chances of B/C in your early 30's is VERY rare. I knew one gal in her 20's and her B/C was on the Indy 500. She lived only 6 months after DX. Unfortunately, when it does happen it is a death sentence.

Your ability to digest certain foods probably has nothing to do with B/C

[susanna]

41. Thanks for your response...

As for the BC scare, my doctor said essentially the same thing. In a woman of my age at the time, it was most likely cysts, but since I had an aunt who had early breast cancer (survived), they did not want to take any chances. I understood my Doc's point about that.

Also, just to clear something up: it's not just digestion problems with soy, and I should have made that clear. It included hot flashes and other hormonal symptoms that just boggled my mind, including random shifts of my normally clockwork cycle. I was in my late 20s, so I knew it wasn't perimenopause. Once I stopped eating soy on the advice of a friend who had gone through a similar episode, all the symptoms stopped cold. Of course, that is my own experience, but it was striking enough that I still think of it.

End result is that I think people are just different; what works for some does not for others.

[u4ic]

36. Plastics,

pesticides and other estrogen mimics would be implicated, too.

[susanna]

40. That's true as well. n/t

[Gloria]

25. I think her mother had it, so there may have been a genetic factor

involved.

I also happened to catch a TV movie on her life recently...and the script indicated that she hadn't had a mammogram in a long time....and that by the time she found the lump.......you know the rest.

[pecwae]

17. Well, I have to say

that I have been vegan or vegetarian for over 10 years and was dx'd with BC in 2004 and again 2005. Last month I was dx'd with thymoma. I'll never give up vegetarianism as I do it for philosophical reasons, but it did not prevent cancer in my case.

edit to add: I lived in an area downstream from Christmas tree farms and used well water for 6 of those 10 years. I feel strongly that pesticide contamination of the water was a factor with my cancer.

[serryjw]

21. Was the thymona

a new primary? What di you do when you first DX with B/C and then in 2005? There is no indication that a vegan diet is the answer but there is large indication that reducing animal (saturated) fat is connected.

[pecwae]

31. Yes, thymoma was new primary.

Since beginning a veg lifestyle I have used no animal byproducts, internally or externally. If you mean what treatments I had for BC; 2004 lumpectomy and rads, 2005 bil mast and half the recommended chemo.

[Berry Cool]

2. Not good enough.

We need to do more to find out why people get this. And when we do, not just fatten the coffers of the already rich Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Bush Pioneers who run it.

[serryjw]

5. I took my own personal poll

for two years. TYPE A personalities get B/C MORE than NOT?? Don't know WHY??

[Berry Cool]

8. Oh, so NOW blame women for getting breast cancer

because of their personalities.

Those damn Type A fatsos...they deserve it.

[serryjw]

9. Don't bite the head of the messenger

Just my observation. Over-weight woman, high fat content in diet and highly charged personalities seem to get B/C at a higher rate...What would you like to do? Blame it on *?? Almost all disease can be attributed to lifestyle choices.

[Berry Cool]

13. Unless you conducted a scientific study,

rather than your own mental straw poll, you are contributing no useful observation here.

You might as well say that from what you observe, more women who wear red get BC than women who wear blue.

And science disagrees with you that "almost all disease can be attributed to lifestyle choices." Environment counts.

on edit: And are you really paying that much attention to what other people eat? Why?

[serryjw]

15. As a 14 year survivor

whom has done a 10 year study for Emory University I have some knowledge of thousands of woman. If it makes you feel better, feel free to disregard what I wrote...Don't every wonder WHY we fighting this disease for way to many years. TRUTH hurts when you don't wnat to follow it.WHY does what I say bother you so much?

[Bridget Burke]

33. Where was your study published?

New England Journal of Medicine?

[serryjw]

34. Have no idea

call Emory University

[Bridget Burke]

37. Please provide a link.

Medical & scientific journals may be accessed online.

[NorthernSpy]

39. you haven't figured out where your own work is published?

LOL!

Wow, that really inspires confidence in the quality of this health advice you've been handing out.

[greccogirl]

19. Not only environment, but it seems

to me that we're forgetting a HUGE factor: genetics.

[Skittles]

30. I dislike the use of "lifesyle choices"

true, a lot of people make bad choices, but then a lot of people don't have whole lot choice in their lives.

[NorthernSpy]

35. in point of fact, heavier women have a REDUCED breast cancer risk...

In general, heavier women are less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer. And among black women, higher BMI is also associated with a lower risk of developing breast cancer after menopause:

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/breastcancer/1548/is-obesity-a-breast-cancer-risk-factor-for-all-women

Contrary to a long-held theory, obesity may not increase the risk of breast cancer among older African-American women, according to research performed at Boston University and at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

The study confirmed the findings of previous studies showing that younger women with a high body mass index (BMI, a weight-height ratio) have a reduced risk of breast cancer. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

The research team focused on the relationship between breast cancer and various measures of obesity in African-American women in particular because the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. is highest in the African-American population.

(...)

"Some previous research, but not all, has shown that high body mass index among older women increases breast cancer risk," the researchers explained. "We actually found the opposite in our study. African-American women with a BMI that qualifies them as obese did not have a higher risk of getting breast cancer. In fact, the risk was slightly lower in obese women overall, which is in agreement with findings from another study of black women."

You wrote:

Don't bite the head of the messenger

Just my observation. Over-weight woman, high fat content in diet and highly charged personalities seem to get B/C at a higher rate...What would you like to do? Blame it on *?? Almost all disease can be attributed to lifestyle choices.

So: is Black America a self-righteous hotbed of low-fat veganism and Zen meditation practices? Is that what has given black women a reduced risk of breast cancer?

Anyone know? Anyone?


Returning to the article, I especially liked this bit:

The latest report from the American Cancer Society states that the overall rate of breast cancer is 17 percent lower in African-American women than in white women, and the five-year survival rate is 14 percent higher among black women. The researchers point out that their research does not change the message that maintaining a healthy weight is best for overall health.

Well, of course not. Nothing changes the Message, ever. Thinness officially equals health -- no matter what. And this sort of faith-based public health crusade is nothing new: from the days of the eugenics craze and anti-"miscegenation" campaigns, right through to the obesity hysteria of today, the public health field has always been plagued with faddy pseudoscience and arrogant, intolerant groupthink.

The current notion of what constitutes a healthy weight is more a product of culture and ideology than science. The "healthy weight" concept as we know it is not science, because it is not falsifiable -- as its own devotees have repeatedly demonstrated. It simply does not matter how many studies find that mortality and morbidity rates are lower for those outside the "ideal" BMI range than for those within it; no amount of contrary evidence ever has the slightest effect on the BMI cult, who apparently would much rather cook stats to fit the "lifestyle" advice that they want to give than consider adjusting the advice to reflect the stats.

[depakid]

6. Press release and full report from NCI

(The National Cancer Institute)

Here: http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/ReportNation2006QandA

and

Here: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/112777119/HTMLSTART

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Thank for the links, depakid! nt

[NashVegas]

10. I'd Think It A Little Early to Count Replacement Hormones as a Factor

It's only been 2-3 years since that shit hit the fan.

How about the rise of organic foods' consumption?

[Berry Cool]

14. Yes, and while mammography has helped somewhat, the jury is still out

as to how much more BC it causes as a result of exposing breasts to all that radiation. Also, as to whether some of the cancers being found by mammogram are so small and slow growing that they'd never pose much of a threat anyway.

I mean, if an 85-year-old woman has a teensy slow-growing cancer, she may well die of something else before the cancer ever gets her.

[serryjw]

16. YOUR point is?

Don't get a mammogram? Don't do self-examination?

[greccogirl]

20. I read an article not long ago

that estimated that 1 in 600 die of cancer due to radiation exposure of tests. Wish I had it bookmarked.

[Tracer]

38. You may be wrong about "all that radiation":

Radiation exposure from mammograms: The modern mammography machine produces breast x-rays that are high in image quality but uses a low radiation dose (usually about 0.1 to 0.2 rads per picture). In the past there were concerns about radiation risks; today if there is a risk, it is very small.

Strict guidelines are in place to ensure that mammography equipment is safe and uses the lowest dose of radiation possible. Many people are concerned about the exposure to x-rays, but the level of radiation in modern mammography does not significantly increase the risk for breast cancer.

To put dose into perspective, if a woman with breast cancer is treated with radiation, she will likely receive a total of around 5,000 rads (a rad is a measure of radiation dose). If she had yearly mammograms beginning at age 40 and continuing until she was 90, she will have received 20 to 40 rads.

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_2_3X_Mammography_and_Other_Breast_Imaging_Procedures.asp?sitearea=PED&gclid=CPHRguGSnocCFS4kFQodFjxlsA

[susanna]

24. That was something I said to my husband...

After a lump on my breast (found to be benign - just a cyst) was found about seven years ago, I went completely organic as far as I was able. (That is not to say I will never have a problem, because your body stores all those toxins you ingested over the years in fat stores.) Since my changeover, though, I have felt tremendously better, and I also find I am not so hormonally crazy during peak/down times of my cycle. I really do think the hormones in food are causing us more harm than we know.

Interesting sidenote: the cyst that started the whole thing (actually cysts - there were more than one found in the exam) have gone down to almost nothing and remain quite dormant. My doctors are quite pleased...and so am I.

[MannyGoldstein]

23. Aspirin Probably Reduces Breast Cancer Risk

For example, see this, which indicated that taking 7 or more aspirin a week seemed to result in a 28% drop.

[serryjw]

27. Wouldn't be my choice

Aspirin can potentially cause so many OTHER problems.
quote....
"Aspirin increases the risks of bleeding disorders, however, and can lead to gastrointestinal hemorrhage and even hemorrhagic stroke," said Dr. Curtis Ellison. "For individuals with a history of bleeding problems or ulcers, the risk of a hemorrhagic problem may exceed the potential benefits of taking aspirin to prevent a heart attack."

Dr. Dean Ornish, author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease, has even harsher words for aspirin. He points out that the doctors taking aspirin in the physicians study had twice as many sudden cardiac deaths, twice the incidence of moderate to severe hemorrhagic strokes and almost twice as many ulcers as those taking the placebo.

end quote......
I must admit...I love Dr Ornish. So I prejudice. I think he is a Heart guru.
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1043187153.html