boobs4breasts.com Blog

BRAMBLETON, Va. – One in seven women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life.

by Elizabeth Coe @ Loudoun Times-MirrorBRAMBLETON, Va. – One in seven women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life.

Everyone else will most likely be touched by it in some way.

That’s why a group of 36 women of all ages and backgrounds, mostly from Brambleton, has gotten together to help fight breast cancer and promote awareness of the disease.

The women, who call themselves the Step Sisters, are a team participating in the 2008 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer marathon-and-a-half in Washington, D.C., May 3-4.

The team comprises those who have been diagnosed with the disease, cancer survivors, family members and friends. As part of their mission to raise $1,800 a person for the 39-mile, two-day walk in May, they’re hosting a 2-mile mini-walk April 12 in Ashburn.

“A lot of people want to do something, but they can’t commit to a two-day thing,” team member Heather Phillips said. “This is something they can do.”

The walk is open to anyone in the Ashburn area and all over the region, said Phillips, a Brambleton resident. The goal is to help raise some funds and educate women about breast cancer and the importance of getting annual mammograms to try to detect the disease.

“Just as important is the awareness,” Phillips said. “And this is a great opportunity for families to do something together.”

The mini-walk also will include activities for children like a moon bounce, a firetruck and refreshments.

Step Sister team member Ashley Campolattaro completed the Avon Walk for the first time last year after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“She lives in Maryland, and I’m in Virginia,” she said. “This was a way to feel like I was doing something to help get her through it.”

This year, a close friend and neighbor, Karina 2mey of Brambleton, who also has breast cancer, will complete the Avon Walk with her fellow Step Sisters at her side.

“I know walking with them, it’s going to be OK,” said 2mey, who is still in treatment for her cancer. “It’s therapeutic for me. I told my doctor I wanted to do this because I wanted to do something that pushed me to the edge. She said, ‘You’ve been through radiation and chemotherapy — you already have.’ But this is something I can control. I knew I needed to do something positive.”

2mey was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago at the age of 37. Since then, she said, her neighbors in Brambleton have provided her family with support and help with things like meals and taking care of her young children.

The Avon Walk is a way for her to be part of something with them, she said. It’s also her chance to show people that young women can get the disease.

The Step Sisters have raised $64,000 so far toward their cause through fundraising and generous donations. Right now they are the second-highest-fundraising Avon Walk team in the nation.

The Step Sisters’ preparations for the 39-mile walk also include training. Walking 39 miles takes conditioning, and blisters are one of the biggest things to prepare for, Campolattaro said. Good shoes and socks are important.

In the end though, whether you finish the walk or not, it is worth it, she said.

“It’s a really powerful event,” she said. “It puts all these faces on the disease.”

read comments (0)

San Francisco, CA – The Breast Cancer Fund today released “State of the Evidence,” a comprehensive report that catalogs and explores the many links between exposures to toxic chemicals and radiation and increased breast cancer risk.

“The picture of breast cancer causation is maddeningly complex – there is no smoking gun, no one chemical or product or even gene that by itself causes breast cancer,” said Jeanne Rizzo, R.N., Executive Director of the Breast Cancer Fund. “But the trends that have emerged lead us to stop asking IF there is a link between breast cancer and the environment, but to ask how to move forward with the strong and compelling evidence we have now.”

The report comes after the U.S. Senate passed legislation on March 6 to strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The bill included an amendment sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that will require all child care products and children’s toys sold throughout the United States to be free of phthalates, a chemical found in many flexible plastics.

“Because phthalates can disrupt the hormones in a child’s developing body, they may trigger early puberty or cause reproductive harm,” said Rizzo. “The U.S. Senate is now on record that parents shouldn’t have to worry that their children’s toys might be harmful.”

Phthalates and a host of other chemicals have been shown to mimic or alter the activities of the natural hormones and potentially increase breast cancer risk. Endocrine disruptors may be found in pesticides, plastics, detergents, industrial solvents, tobacco smoke, prescription drugs, food additives and personal care products.

In the new report, the Breast Cancer Fund provides the most comprehensive listing to-date of chemicals linked to breast cancer, including natural and synthetic estrogens; xenoestrogens and other endocrine-disrupting compounds; carcinogenic chemicals and radiation. This exhaustive catalog provides a much more complex picture of breast cancer causation than traditionally accepted, one in which timing, mixtures and dose of environmental exposures interact with genes and lifestyle factors.

A major trend arising from the report is that early-life exposures to endocrine disruptors–particularly during gestation and childhood, but also continuing through first childbirth and breastfeeding–are critical to later-life breast cancer risk. These compounds have yet to be classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) or the National Toxicology Program (NTP), event though recent studies show an explicit health risk.

Among the risks discussed in State of the Evidence 2008 are bisphenol A, a component of hard plastic found in some popular water bottles and baby bottles that was originally developed as a synthetic estrogen; the pesticides DDT and atrazine; air pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; hormone replacement therapy; and ionizing radiation. The report also highlights that early puberty, influenced by a variety of factors including phthalates, is itself a risk factor for later-life breast cancer.

“The mass of data on timing of exposure is extraordinary from a scientist’s perspective, and scary from a personal perspective,” said Janet Gray, Ph.D., editor of State of the Evidence 2008. “We have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to take action now that may prevent them from a breast cancer diagnosis in 10, 20 or 50 years. The science is there to support change, and lawmakers, researchers and industries are beginning to recognize this.”

This report, which cites more than 400 epidemiological and experimental studies, was edited by Janet Gray, Ph.D., of Vassar College and reviewed by experts in medicine and science, including Kristan Aronson, Ph.D., Queen’s University, Canada; Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., University of Pittsburgh; Suzanne E. Fenton, Ph.D., NHEERL, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Annie J. Sasco, M.D., Dr.P.H., Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, France; and Ana Soto, M.D., Tufts University School of Medicine.

The Breast Cancer Fund is the leading national organization working exclusively to identify and eliminate the environmental causes of breast cancer. Visit www.breastcancerfund.org/evidence to download State of the Evidence 2008, order printed copies, read policy and research recommendations and find information for consumers, including downloadable tables that synthesize information about chemicals found in pesticides, air pollution, plastics, household cleaning products and cosmetics.

read comments (0)

Cardiff University researchers are at the forefront in the fight against breast cancer.
Professor Trevor Dale, School of Biosciences, is studying the role of a molecule called Wnt in breast cancer development. The research is funded by the Breast Cancer Campaign, the charity that aims to beat breast cancer by funding innovative world-leading research.

Wnt is normally only active during puberty and pregnancy and encourages breast stem cells to change and grow into new cells. Once this job is done it switches off.

Professor Dale thinks that genetic changes in breast stem cells can reactivate Wnt which causes stem cells to develop into breast cancer cells.

Professor Dale said: “My research aims to work out how Wnt is switched off after puberty and pregnancy so that treatments can be developed to mimic this action in breast cancer.”

Medical and medical related research and education across the University School of Medicine, the School of Biosciences, Welsh School of Pharmacy and other academic schools are making a major contribution to tackling breast cancer.

read comments (0)