Domestic pets, if not spayed, get it: Mel Greaves, Cancer: The Evolutionary Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 210.
Among the Kaingang women in Paraná, Brazil: This is according to Edimara Patrícia da Silva et al., “Exploring Breast Cancer Risk Factors in Kaingáng Women in the Faxinal Indigenous Territory, Paraná State, Brazil, 2008,” Cadernos de Saúde Pública, vol. 25, no. 7 (2009), pp. 1493-1500.
One papyrus recommends applying a plaster: James V. Ricci, The Genealogy of Gynaecology: History of the Development of Gynaecology through the Ages (Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1943), p. 20, as cited in Marilyn Yalom, A History of the Breast (New York: Knopf, 1997), p. 206.
Anne of Austria, the mother of King Louis XIV: Yalom, History of the Breast, p. 217.
De Morbis Artificum Diatriba: Bernardino Ramazzini, De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (London: Printed for Andrew Bell et al., 1705), pp. 122-123.
“Childless women get it / And men when they retire”: W. H.
Auden, “Miss Gee” (1937), published in Another Time (New York: Random House, 1940).
woman’s tumor was sometimes a different size: Olson, Bathsheba’s Breast, p. 77.
“I am satisfied that in the ovary”: George Thomas Beatson, quoted in Olson, Bathsheba’s Breast, p. 78.
breast cancer rates in the United States: For breast cancer statistics, see “SEER Stat Fact Sheets: Breast,” at http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html.
he headed to Hiroshima: For an excellent description of Malcolm Pike in Hiroshima, see Malcolm Gladwell, “John Rock’s Error,” New Yorker, March 13, 2000, pp. 52-63.
As early as the 1930s, scientists: Olson, Bathsheba’s Breast, p. 178.
tufted-ear marmosets: See Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2009), pp. 92-97.
“Not in our wildest dreams”: Carl Djerassi, The Pill, Pygmy Chimps and Degas’ Horse (New York: Basic Books, 1992), p. 58.
“Estrogen is to cancer what fertilizer”: Roy Hertz, quoted in Olson, Bathsheba’s Breast, p. 178.
“Your problems are too complicated”: Djerassi, Pill, Pygmy Chimps and Degas’ Horse, p. 135.
to make human breast cancer cells grow faster: Brian E. Henderson et al., “Endogenous Hormones as a Major Factor in Human Cancer,” Cancer Research, vol. 42 (1982), pp. 3232-3239.
progesterone is just as bad, and possibly worse: Sandra Haslam, a physiologist from Michigan State University, has been studying the nefarious effects of progesterone on mammary glands for years. “We’ve been pointing the finger at the wrong hormone all these years,” she told me (author interview, July 2011).
They ovulate approximately one hundred times: Beverly I. Strassmann, “Menstrual Cycling and Breast Cancer: An Evolutionary Perspective,” Journal of Women’s Health, vol. 8, no. 2 (March 1999), pp. 193-202.
Today in America, nearly 20 percent of women: Jane Lawler Dye, “Fertility of American Women: 2006,” Current Population Reports, U.S. Census Bureau, August 2008, available at www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p20-558.pdf.
a marketing article from the University of Southern California: Alfred Kildow, “The Dashing Malcolm Pike,” USC Health Magazine, Summer 1996, available at http://www.usc.edu/hsc/info/pr/hmm/96summer/pike.html (accessed October 2011).
Captive tigers and lions also suffer: Greaves, Cancer, p. 210.
By 1992, Premarin: Kathryn Huang and Megan Van Aelstyn, presentation of a Notre Dame case study, “Hormone Replacement Therapy and Wyeth,” available at http://www.awpagesociety.com/images/uploads/Wyeth-Powerpoint.ppt (accessed October 2011).
“I think of the menopause as a deficiency disease”: Quoted in Jane E. Brody, “Physicians’ Views Unchanged on Use of Estrogen Therapy,” New York Times, December 5, 1975.
“living decay”: Robert Wilson, quoted in Gary Null and Barbara Seaman, For Women Only (Toronto: Seven Stories Press, 1999), p. 751.
women “rich in estrogen”: Robert Wilson, from Feminine Forever (1966), as quoted in Olson, Bathsheba’s Breast, p. 181.
anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy: On caloric requirements of children, see Hrdy, Mothers and Others, p. 31. For a discussion of the grandmother hypothesis, see pp. 241-243.
Estrogen, miracle hormone that it is: Karen J. Carlson, Stephanie A. Eisenstat, and Terra Ziporyn, The New Harvard Guide to Women’s Health (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2004), p. 375.
Million Women Study: For general information on the Million Women Study, see http://www.millionwomenstudy.org/.
The main culprit appeared to be progesterone: The risk of estrogen alone to breast cancer is confusing and under discussion. While the Million Women Study found a 66 percent higher risk for women taking estrogen alone, a more recent study found that it was actually moderately protective against breast cancer in women with hysterectomies. It still, however, found an increased risk of stroke. See A. Z. LaCroix et al., “Health Outcomes after Stopping Conjugated Equine Estrogens among Postmenopausal Women with Prior Hysterectomy: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 305 (2011), pp. 1305-1314.
Overall, hormone therapy in Britain caused: V. Beral et al., “Breast Cancer and Hormone-Replacement Therapy in the Million Women Study,” Lancet, no. 362 (2003), pp. 419-427.
CHAPTER 12 • THE FEW. THE PROUD. THE AFFLICTED.
“Do unto those downstream”: Wendell Berry, Citizenship Papers (Berkeley: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2003), p. 214.
Although the military knew: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “Analyses and Historical Reconstruction of Groundwater Flow, Contaminant Fate and Transport, and Distribution of Drinking Water within the Service Areas of the Hadnot Point and Holcomb Boulevard Water Treatment Plants and Vicinities, U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Chapter C: Occurrence of Selected Contaminants in Groundwater at Installation Restoration Program Sites,” October 2010, p. C7.
At that time, analysis from one well: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “Analyses and Historical Reconstruction of Groundwater Flow, Contaminant Fate and Transport, and Distribution of Drinking Water,” p. C94.
Tap water at the elementary school: Camp Lejeune Water System analysis document for dichloroethylene and trichloroethylene, North Carolina Department of Human Resources, Division of Health Services, Occupational Health Laboratory, February 4, 1985, analyzed and signed by John L. Neal.
TCE alone has been detected: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “Toxic Substances Portal—Trichloroethylene (TCE),” July 2003, at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=172&tid=30.
present in 34 percent of the nation’s drinking water: President’s Cancer Panel, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now, 2008-2009 Annual Report, National Cancer Institute, April 2010, p. 33, available at http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/annualReports/index.htm.
In September 2011, the EPA formally reclassified TCE: For the EPA’s assessment report, released September 29, 2011, see http://www.epa.gov/iris/supdocs/0199index.html.
is still used by most dry-cleaners: Ray Smith, “The New Dirt on Dry Cleaners,” Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2011.
once used as an aftershave: Christopher Portier, director, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, author interview, July 2011.
One recent European study: Sara Villeneuve et al., “Occupation and Occupational Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Male Breast Cancer: A Case—Control Study in Europe,” Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 67, no. 12 (2010), pp. 837-844.
Vinyl chloride has been linked to breast cancer: Peter F. Infante et al., “A Historical Perspective of Some Occupationally Related Diseases in Women,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 36, no. 8 (1994), pp. 826-831. See also S. Villeneuve, “Breast Cancer Risk by Occupation and Industry: Analysis of the CECILE Study, a Population-Based Case-Control Study in France,” American Journal of Industrial Me
dicine, vol. 54, no. 7 (2011), pp. 499-509.
Another study found a very moderately increased risk: A. Blair et al., “Mortality and Cancer Incidence of Aircraft Maintenance Workers Exposed to Trichloroethylene and Other Organic Solvents and Chemicals: Extended Follow Up,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 55, no. 3 (1998), pp. 161-171.
Some studies found that dry-cleaning workers: P. R. Band et al., “Identification of Occupational Cancer Risks in British Columbia,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, vol. 42, no. 3 (2000), pp. 284-310.
other studies found a lower incidence: A. Blair et al., “Cancer and Other Causes of Death among a Cohort of Dry Cleaners,” British Journal of Industrial Medicine, vol. 47, no. 3 (1990), pp. 162-168.
A 1999 study looking at Danish women: Johnni Hansen, “Breast Cancer Risk among Relatively Young Women Employed in Solvent-Using Industries,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine, vol. 36, no. 1 (1999), pp. 43-47.
a set of studies looked at women on Cape Cod: Ann Aschengrau et al., “Perchloroethylene-Contaminated Drinking Water and the Risk of Breast Cancer: Additional Results from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA,” Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 111, no. 2 (February 2003), pp. 167-173.
The American Cancer Society attributes only 2 to 6 percent: Brett Israel, “How Many Cancers Are Caused by the Environment?” Scientific American, May 21, 2010, accessed at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-many-cancers-are-caused-by-the-environment; see also Elizabeth T.H. Fontham, “American Cancer Society Perspectives on Environmental Factors and Cancer,” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, vol. 59, no. 6 (2009), pp. 343-351.
hot spots for breast cancer: J. Griffith et al., “Cancer Mortality in US Counties with Hazardous-Waste Sites and Ground-Water Pollution,” Archives of Environmental Health, vol. 44 (1989), pp. 69-74.
report released in April 2010: President’s Cancer Panel, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk.
cancers caused by chemicals have been “grossly underestimated”: Podcast interview with Margaret Kripke, professor of immunology and executive vice president and chief academic officer, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, February 7, 2011, available at http://www.commonweal.org/new-school/audiofiles/podcast/97_m_kripke_final_w_intro.mp3.
Most of the major breast cancer organizations say: Denise Grady, “U.S. Panel Criticized as Overstating Cancer Risks,” New York Times, May 6, 2010.
they account for little over half of all breast cancers: Hansen, “Breast Cancer Risk among Relatively Young Women.”
CHAPTER 13 • ARE YOU DENSE?
“Death in old age is inevitable”: Richard Doll, quoted in Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of Maladies (New York: Scribner, 2010), p. 462. Original quote from Richard Peto et al., “Mortality from Smoking Worldwide,” British Medical Bulletin, vol. 52, no. 1 (1996), pp. 12-21.
BRCA genes are most commonly found: Marie E. Wood, “A Clinician’s Guide to Breast Cancer Risk Assessment,” Sexuality, Reproduction and Menopause, vol. 8, no. 1 (2010), pp. 15-20.
Or my grandmothers could have inherited: Susan L. Neuhausen, “Founder Populations and Their Uses for Breast Cancer Genetics,” Breast Cancer Research, vol. 2, no. 2 (2000), pp. 77-81.
In families with histories of breast and ovarian cancer: Greg Gibson, It Takes a Genome: How a Clash between Our Genes and Modern Life Is Making Us Sick (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press, 2009), p. 30.
The average lifetime risk of breast cancer: “Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool,” National Cancer Institute, at http://www.cancer.gov/bcrisktool/RiskAssessment.aspx?current_age=42&age_at_menarche=10&age_at_first_live_birth=30&ever_had_biopsy= 0&previous_biopsies=0&biopsy_with_hyperplasia=0&related_ with_breast_cancer=0&race=1 (accessed October 2011).
mammograms wouldn’t miss 20 percent: National Cancer Institute Factsheet, “Mammograms,” available at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/mammograms, accessed October 2011.
Menopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy: Norman Boyd, “Mammographic Density and Breast Cancer Risk: Evaluation of a Novel Method of Measuring Breast Tissue Volumes,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, vol. 18, no. 6 (2009), pp. 1756-1762.
Some studies show that wine drinkers: C. M. Vachon et al., “Association of Diet and Mammographic Breast Density in the Minnesota Breast Cancer Family Cohort,” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, vol. 9, no. 2 (2000), pp. 151-160.
the equivalent of about two additional breast cancers per year: Denise Grady, “Breast Cancer Seen as Riskier with Hormones,” New York Times, October 19, 2010; see also Peter B. Bach, “Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer: An Uncertain Trade-off,” Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 15, no. 304 (2010), pp. 1719-1720; and Rowan T. Chlebowski et al., “Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women after Hormone Therapy—Reply,” Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 5, no. 305 (2011), pp. 466-467.
“Traditional medicine and public health practices”: Nancy Langston, Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010), p. 149.
Mammograms might work pretty well: Even this statement is open to debate. We assume it to be true, but a recent large study in Europe found little change in mortality in women who received regular mammograms and women who didn’t, and these women were over fifty. Death rates over both categories had improved, but the researchers attributed the change to better treatment, not to better screening. See P. Autier et al., “Breast Cancer Mortality in Neighbouring European Countries with Different Levels of Screening but Similar Access to Treatment: Trend Analysis of WHO Mortality Database,” British Medical Journal, published online, July 29, 2011, available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3145837/.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: For the task force’s recommendations, see U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, “Screening for Breast Cancer,” December 2009, at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/USpstf/uspsbrca.htm.
in Colorado, fully one-third of all breast cancers: Lori Jensen, “A Local Look at Mammograms for Women under 50,” Boulder Daily Camera, February 28, 2010.
It’s a well-recognized fact that most breast cancers: The 2003 National Health Interview Survey looked at 361 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1980 and 2003. Results revealed that 57 percent found their cancers on their own, either by self-examination or by accident. M. Y. Roth et al., “Self-Detection Remains a Key Method of Breast Cancer Detection for U.S. Women,” Journal of Women’s Health, vol. 20, no. 8 (August 20, 2011), pp. 1135-1139.
women in China received inadequate training: Lee Wilke, associate professor and director, UW Breast Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, author interview, February 2010.
one in Canada, which did find: Anthony B. Miller et al., “Canadian National Breast Screening Study 2: 13-Year Results of a Randomized Trial in Women Aged 50-59 Years,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute, vol. 92, no. 18 (2000), pp. 1490-1499.
A recent study from Duke University: Lee Wilke et al., “Breast Self-Examination: Defining a Cohort Still in Need,” Proceedings of American Society of Breast Surgeons (2009).
BRCA genes make breast cells more sensitive: A. Broeks et al., “Identification of Women with an Increased Risk of Developing Radiation-Induced Breast Cancer: A Case Only Study,” Breast Cancer Research, vol. 9 (2007), pp. 106-114.
CHAPTER 14 • THE FUTURE OF BREASTS
“The world is too much with us”: William Wordsworth, ca. 1806, from Jack Stillinger, ed., Selected Poems and Prefaces by William Wordsworth (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), p. 183.
Susan Love: Love likes to say, “We know how to cure breast cancer really well in a mouse. The problem is, we don’t know much about how cancer works in women” (author interview, April 2009). In hopes of conducting more research with women and less with rodents, the Army of Women, a partnership between the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and Avon Fo
undation for Women, aims to enlist one million women study volunteers from diverse backgrounds. For more information, see www.armyofwomen.org.
The medical community is getting better: Heide Splete, “10-Year Breast Cancer Survival Rates Improve,” Internal Medicine News Digital Network, September 29, 2010, available at http://www.internalmedicinenews.com/specialty-focus/women-s-health/single -article-page/10-year-breast-cancer-survival-rates-improve.html.
Yet surprisingly few national research dollars: Tiffany O’Callaghan, “The Prevention Agenda,” Nature, vol. 471, no. 7339 (March 24, 2011), pp. s2-s4.
breast cancer will, on average, shave thirteen years off a woman’s life: Tomas J. Aragon et al., “Calculating Expected Years of Life Lost for Assessing Local Ethnic Disparities in Causes of Premature Death,” BMC Public Health, vol. 8 (2008), p. 116.
Breasts Page 30