"Five eminent Boston researchers will
officially join forces Thursday to tackle one of the most perplexing
questions about breast cancer: Why do so many people with no family
history of the disease get it?
The
researchers will examine whether common man-made chemicals are
responsible for the disease, which increasingly strikes men and women.
In 2014, breast cancer will be the
second-most-diagnosed form of cancer and the third- deadliest form of
the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. But unlike with
some other cancers, the vast majority of breast cancer diagnoses — more
than 90 percent — cannot be traced to a hereditary cause, the institute
said."
This is the kind of research I want to see. I am one of the 90% - there is no family history on either side for me. One of my mother's second cousins had breast cancer back in the 1970s and since my diagnosis, one of my aunts was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer at age 76. Both of my grandfather's died of cancer - one with gall bladder cancer and the other with prostate. My father was diagnosed with lymphoma in his 80s. This is not a breast cancer family history.
So why me? The eternal question of all cancer patients. I dislike the articles that tell us what we did wrong. I want to know what factors might have caused my cancers.
"“The bottom line is that there is not a lot of
coordinated research around the environment and breast cancer,” she
said. “We felt that in order to have some kind of strong impact on the
field of environmental causes of breast cancer we needed to put together
a large project.”
Most cancer research is
dedicated to developing drugs or cures, Sherr said. But the Boston
consortium’s ultimate goal is finding a way to prevent the cancer from
ever taking hold."
They have a $5 million three year grant to help solve this riddle. I hope they get more funding to continue their research. Read more here.
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