Janine O'Leary Cobb

A significant body of evidence suggests that synthetic chemicals in the environment must be factored in as possible causes of breast cancer — a disease that strikes more women in the world than any other form of cancer. The evidence includes, but is by no means restricted to,

• the Women's Health Initiative trial, a study discontinued in 2002 when postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (estrogen + progestins) was found to cause a 26 percent increased risk of breast cancer.
• a recent study from Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center establishing that ethylene glycol methyl ether (EGME) — found in varnishes, paints, dyes, fuel additives — can boost the activity of estrogens and progestins inside cells by 8- to 10-fold.
• the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project implicating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — found in tobacco smoke, soot, diesel exhaust and smoked or grilled foods — as a risk factor for breast cancer.
• the fact that daughters of women who were administered diethystilbestrol (DES) during pregnancy are at increased risk of breast cancer.
• research from the University of California at Berkeley that found that a 10-fold increase in dioxin levels more than doubled the risk of breast cancer. [Dioxin is an endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemical linked to several types of cancer as well as to birth defects, learning disabilities, and suppression of the immune system. It is found everywhere.]
• researchers evaluating data from the Nurses' Health Study concluded that the study of PCB exposure in genetically susceptible women warrants serious investigation. [Although banned, PCBs persist in the environment and have been implicated in many forms of cancer.]
• two Swedish studies concluded not only that environmental factors play a more important role than genetic inheritance in the origin of most cancers, but that this risk is largely established during the first 20 years of life.

Breast cancer rates continue to rise around the world and, within this broad demographic picture, there is a discernible relationship between the rates of breast cancer and the widespread use of man-made chemicals.

In October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month), growing numbers of Montrealers demonstrated their awareness of, and concern about vulnerability to this terrible disease. With the best will in the world, they ran or walked "for the cure." Year 'round, they buy products with the promise that some portion of their cash will go to research into the disease. The money they help to raise more often goes to fund research into new surgical techniques, different radiation protocols, different forms and dosages of chemotherapy, or novel tests to more strictly pinpoint that minority of women (5 to 10 percent) genetically predisposed to breast cancer.

Praiseworthy as these endeavours may be, they consume over $95 of every $100 devoted to breast cancer research, leaving a scarcity of funds with which to follow up the tantalizing clues that link environmental contaminants and the rising incidence of breast cancer. We continue to plead for more attention to, and more funds for, the prevention of breast cancer. The research agenda will only change as a response to pressure from those most concerned.

Most of us have experienced breast cancer firsthand. Please join us by writing letters to those responsible for breast cancer research in Canada. You can write to any or all of the following:

Carol Seidman, Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation
790 Bay Street, Suite 1000
Toronto, ON M5G 1N8
E-mail: cbcf@cbcf.org

Marilyn Schneider, Executive Director
Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance
790 Bay Street, Suite 1000
Toronto, ON M5G 1N8
Email: mschneider@cbcf.org

Barbara Whylie, Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Cancer Society
10 Alcorn Avenue, Suite 200
Toronto, ON M4V 3B1
E-mail: ccs@ottawa.cancer.ca

Dr. Philip E. Branton, Scientific Director
Institute of Cancer Research
3655 Prom. Sir-William-Osler, #706
Montreal, QC H3G 1Y6
Email: ICR@cihr-irsc.gc.ca