Breast cancer is a dark cloud for all women. Are there things that we can do rather than just hope we don’t become a victim? Are we locked into a fate because of our genetic make-up?
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. In Europe, there were about 421,000new cases and nearly 90,000 deaths in 2008, the latest available figures. The United States last year saw more than 190,000 new cases and 40,000 deaths.
Carlo La Vecchia, head of epidemiology at the University of Milan and who recently spoke on the influence of lifestyle factors at a European breast cancer conference in Barcelona, told the Associated Press, "What can be achieved with screening has been achieved. We can't do much more. It's time to move onto other things."
A woman's lifetime chance of getting breast cancer is about one in eight. Obese women are up to 60% more likely to develop any cancer than normal-weight women, according to a 2006 study by British researchers.
Many breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, a hormone produced in fat tissue. So experts suspect that the fatter a woman is, the more estrogen she's likely to produce, which could in turn spark breast cancer. Even in slim women, exercise can help reduce the cancer risk by converting more of the body's fat into muscle.
La Vecchia cited figures from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which estimated that 25 to 30% of breast cancer cases could be avoided if women were thinner and exercised more.
While better treatments, early diagnosis and mammogram screenings have dramatically slowed the disease, experts said the focus should now shift to changing behaviors like diet and physical activity.
La Vecchia said countries like Italy and France — where obesity rates have been stable for the past two decades — show that weight can be controlled at a population level.
"It's hard to lose weight, but it's not impossible," he said. "The potential benefit of preventing cancer is worth it."
LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers
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