Potential causes of breast cancer and how to minimise risks of developing the disease

Women queue to register to be tested for breast cancer at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi on October 25, 2016. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Just being a woman is greatest risk factor in developing breast cancer.
  • Kenya National Guidelines for Cancer Management recommend mammogram for diagnosing breast cancer in women above 40 and ultrasound imaging for younger ones but are silent on why mammography should be avoided in younger women.

With just a few days before the Cancer Awareness Month 2016 ends, it is important to reflect on potential causes of breast cancer and how to minimise risks of developing the disease.

The Kenya National Guidelines for Cancer Management describe breast cancer as the commonest cause of cancer-related mortality in women and a leading cancer in Kenya and the world.

While diet is an important factor in breast cancer, just being a woman is the greatest risk factor in developing the disease.

The guidelines recommend a mammogram for diagnosing breast cancer in women over 40 years and ultrasound imaging for younger women, but are silent on why mammography should be avoided in younger women.

However, Sayer Ji, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine and vice-chairman, board of the US-based National Health Federation, has an explanation. Quoting from the New England Journal of Medicine, Ji reveals the possibility that 1.3 million cases of breast cancer in the US population had been created by mammography.

The article Ji refers to was authored by A. Bleyer and H.G. Welch. Titled “Effect of Three Decades of Screening Mammography on Breast-Cancer Incidence”, the study found that the number of cases of early-stage breast cancer detected each year had doubled since the introduction of screening and mammography in the US.

“However, only 6.5 per cent of these cases were expected to progress to advanced disease. Ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS) — and related ‘abnormal breast findings’ may represent natural benign variations in breast morphology”, the study found.

While preemptive treatment strategies are still routinely employed, with mastectomy rates increasing since 2004, exposure to X-rays is not innocent. Writes Ji: “The adverse health effects associated with overdiagnosis and overtreatment with lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and hormone-suppressive treatments cannot be underestimated”.

PROFOUND TRAUMA

Each stage of diagnosis and treatment, Ji says, causes profound psychological trauma, not to mention additional physiological burdens such as psychic injuries. Kenyan guidelines do not recommend radiation therapy for low-risk DCIS.

In most women, DCIS presents without symptoms and “…if left untreated will (usually) not progress...” Without X-ray diagnostic technologies, most women diagnosed with DCIS would never know they had it, says Ji. Lancet Oncology published a study showing that even clinically verified “invasive” cancers appear to regress with time if left untreated.”

Ji warns: “If it is indeed true that DCIS, other abnormal breast findings, as well as clinically confirmed invasive breast cancer, either remain benign or regress when left untreated, the entire breast cancer industry … must radically reform itself or face massive financial and ethical liabilities vis-à-vis outdated and no longer ‘evidence-based’ practices.”

According to Marisa C. Weiss, an oncologist and breast cancer survivor, in a pamphlet she co-authored with Joan Ruderman, “radiation therapy or diagnostic procedures using radiation should be used only if necessary.”

Getting to and sticking to a healthy weight, regular exercise, fresh air, vitamin D (including from the sun), eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and cooking real food are among the healthy options.

Eat real fruits instead of snacks and drinks with empty calories. Food labelling is another danger. Products claiming, “No hormones or antibiotics added” may not reveal that hormones were fed to animals before slaughter. A history of breast cancer in the family is another risk factor.

 

Dorothy Kweyu is a freelance writer and consulting editor.