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Lifestyle poses the real risk of breast cancer, panel says |
Marilynn Marchione: The Associated Press Published Wednesday Dec. 07, 2011
Women concerned about breast cancer should worry less about cellphones and hair dyes and more about weighing or drinking too much, exercising too little, using menopause hormones and getting too much radiation from medical tests, says a new report on environmental risks by a respected panel of science advisers.
By environment, the advisers mean everything not governed by genes – what’s in the air and water, but also diets, vitamin use and even things such as working night shifts.
The medical community has done a better job of treating breast cancer than preventing it, said Michael Thun, senior epidemiologist for the American Cancer Society, who helped review the report. Weight and obesity matter because fat cells make estrogen, which fuels the growth of most breast cancers, Dr. Thun said.
Other factors are more complex. Moderate alcohol consumption may lower the risk of heart disease, but it seems to raise the risk of breast cancer a little.
The report sorts the evidence for higher breast-cancer risk factors like this:
• Yes:
Hormone therapy combining estrogen and progestin, excess weight after menopause, alcohol consumption and radiation from too many medical tests, especially during childhood. The panel doesn’t say how much radiation is too much, but it says two or three abdominal CT scans give as much as atomic bomb survivors received. Mammograms use minuscule amounts and should not be avoided. Oral contraceptives slightly raise breast-cancer risk while being taken, although cancer rates are very low in the age groups that use them.
• No:
Hair dyes and the kind of radiation from cellphones, microwaves and electronic gadgets.
• Probable:
Smoking.
• Possible:
Second-hand smoke, night-time shift work and exposure to benzene and a couple of other chemicals through jobs or from breathing car fumes or pumping gas. It is “biologically plausible” that BPA and certain other plastics ingredients might affect estrogen, but evidence is mostly in animals and lab tests – not enough to judge whether they harm people, the panel concluded.
Last changed: Jan 22 2012 at 8:10 PM
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