Word: estrogen
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...Your story focused mainly on the treatment of breast cancer and said little about prevention. Recent scientific studies suggest that pesticides - particularly the notorious endosulfan, which mimics estrogen in its effects on the body - have helped boost breast cancer rates worldwide. Countries that make liberal use of pesticides are now paying the price in rising rates of breast cancer. We need insight into the causes of this insidious disease so we can pressure farmers and governments to mend their ways. Bill Murray, Wellington...
...woman's chances of surviving breast cancer, perhaps one of the most powerful is the simple matter of race. Most women in the U.S. are of European ancestry, and the majority of those who develop breast cancer are struck by a type that is partly stimulated by exposure to estrogen. This is one reason the disease usually hits in middle age, after 25 or so years of the monthly hormonal surges associated with ovulation and menstruation. Since the cancer relies on estrogen to grow, drugs like tamoxifen and Herceptin, which block hormone receptors on malignant cells, can help starve...
...Asian women, as well as black women in the U.S. and Africa, are at higher risk of developing a more aggressive form of breast cancer known as estrogen-receptor negative, or ER-negative. That illness strikes an average of 10 years earlier than the other variety and is indifferent to drugs that block estrogen since it isn't fed by estrogen in the first place. Worse, research findings released in June 2006 showed that 40% of premenopausal African-American breast-cancer patients have an even more dangerous form of ER-negative cancer called the basal-like subtype, resistant not only...
...number of children they are having. Research shows that women who give birth to fewer than two children have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who have larger broods. Part of the reason is probably that pregnancy and nursing provide the body with a sort of estrogen holiday, as the menstrual cycle is shut down for at least nine months and often a lot longer...
...Chemotherapy decisions are similarly dictated by pocketbook considerations. The greater likelihood of ER-negative breast cancer in Africans and Asians means that such drugs as the estrogen blockers are not on the menu of pharmaceutical options. That rules out one of the cheapest and most available breast-cancer drugs in Africa: a $150-a-dose generic version of tamoxifen (and even that would be far too expensive for many women). Traditional chemotherapy may cost $20,000 or more. Merely determining which type of cancer a woman has may require genetic testing, which can add an additional...