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Monday, May 14, 2007
A database that summarizes more than 900 studies on possible environmental causes of breast cancer is now available for free online. Its creators say the database, created with funding from the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, is the most comprehensive list of chemicals and lifestyle factors that may cause the disease.
"When we took a step back and said, 'Where are the gaps,' this was clearly a gap," said biochemist Dwight Randle, senior scientific adviser for Komen for the Cure. "We believe it will help scientists refine their research."
The database focuses on factors that can cause breast cancer, which strikes more than 178,000 U.S. women each year, said Julia Brody, the epidemiologist and environmental researcher who led the project.
"It represents an enormous step for an influential organization like Komen to take this on," said Dr. Brody of the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass. "Over the years, the primary focus in cancer research has been on diagnosis and treatment. But there's been relatively little focus on prevention." The institute is a nonprofit research group focused on the environment's impact on women's health.
Four articles summarizing the findings in the database were published online Monday in the journal Cancer.
The database's information comes from medical and toxicological studies. The database is available at no charge at www.komen.org/environment and at www.silentspring.org/ sciencereview.
Among the key findings of the project:
•Lifelong physical activity reduces the risk of breast cancer.
•Reducing alcohol consumption lowers risk.
•Avoiding being overweight after menopause lowers risk.
•Of 216 chemicals that cause breast tumors in animals, 73 have been present in consumer products or as contaminants in food, 35 are air pollutants, and 25 have been associated with occupation exposures. Twenty-nine of the chemicals are produced in amounts exceeding 1 million pounds per year.
•Evidence is mounting that some of those chemicals are causing breast cancer in women, although there has not been much human research to test such links.
Dr. Brody said she hoped that manufacturers would use the database to see the research on chemicals they use. Policymakers and working scientists should also find the database useful.
And perhaps most interested will be people with breast cancer. "My patients certainly believe that their breast cancers may have been contributed by environmental influences," said Dr. Lisa Bailey, a breast surgeon and medical director of the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center in Oakland, Calif.
A small fraction of breast cancers are due to strong genetic predispositions. But the vast majority of cases remain unexplained.
The survey highlights pressing questions about chemical safety, Dr. Brody said.
Given that human effects are so difficult to prove – it's unethical to expose humans to chemicals and impractical to wait decades to see if cancer ensues – the public needs to think about how chemicals are regulated, Dr. Brody said.
"I think it's important to think now about how we want to approach this evidence," Dr. Brody said. "With a better safe than sorry attitude? Given what we know, do we want to take action now to reduce exposure for these chemicals?"
jill
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