Breast cancer prevention

Discusses the debates about mammography screening, arguing that screening can often be unnecessary and have negative impacts. Notes that screening has not reduced incidence of advanced cancers, a prerequisite for successful screening.

Discusses a holistic approach to breast health and breast cancer prevention that accounts for the evidence that breast cancer is caused not only by genetic predisposition, but also by environmental and lifestyle factors.

A free 24-page downloadable guide to peer-reviewed research on breast cancer prevention.

Discusses the work of researchers Jim Brophy and Margaret Keith who have studied the links between cancer risk and occupation in the automovie plastics industry in Sarnia, Ontario. Much of the material used in this article is drawn from the chapter entitled “Plastics Industry Workers and Breast Cancer Risk: Are We Heeding the Warnings?” in the book Consuming Chemicals: Law, Science and Policy for Women's Health, edited by D.N. Scott and written by Brophy, Keith, and fellow researchers Robert DeMatteo, Michael Gilbertson, Andrew Watterson and Matthias Beck. 

Explains the current issues with mammography scrrening and summarizes the evidence about it. Discusses the recent controversies about the guideline on screening for breast cancer for average-risk women (aged 40 to 79) that was released in late 2011 by The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. This guideline updated screening recommendations made by the Task Force’s predecessor, the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination, in 2001. The focus of the guideline is on mammography screening, but the guideline authors also recommended against clinical breast examination (by physicians) and breast self-examination by patients. 

Discusses the controversies about the guideline on screening for breast cancer for average-risk women (aged 40 to 79) that was updated in late 2011 by The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. Explains the issues and summarizes the evidence and current thinking about breast self-examination.

A question and answer format factsheet on the health issues facing women who work in industries, such as the automotive industry, in which they work with plastics. Discusses the risk of developing breast cancer due to these exposures, the current situation with occupational health standards, and what should be done to change those standards.

A report of the Breast Cancer and Chemicals Policy Project, arising because proposed legislation in the US calls for disclosure of information about the toxicity of industrial chemicals. Investigates how such efforts could help identify chemicals that may raise the risk of breast cancer. Includes a testing scheme, called the Hazard Identification Approach, that provides a methodology for identifying substances that could elevate breast cancer risk.

Provides a framework for examining and determining the environmental causes of breast cancer. 

This edition of the Breast Cancer Fund's landmark report summarizes and evaluates the scientific evidence linking exposures to chemicals and radiation in our everyday environments to increased breast cancer risk. It also links the science to actions we can take to reduce the risk.

Includes a new advocacy section, From Science to Action, by Janet Nudelman M.A. and Connie Engel, Ph.D.