Recent Breast Cancer Studies

May 2, 2005 6:31 AM

British Asian Women Have Lower Risk Of Breast Cancer Than All Other Women
Japanese Women Found To Have Much Lower Recurrence Of Breast Cancer
Exposure to carcinogens in traffic emissions at particular lifetime points may increase the risk of developing breast cancer.
posted by dfowler (19 comments total)

Regarding the significant difference in recurrence, the study on Japanese women says, "This study suggests that there are biological factors that may be related to ethnicity."

I wonder if behavioral differences like the use of green tea, which must be more common for Asian women, might also have an impact on these results.
posted by dfowler at 6:38 AM on May 2, 2005

[Boobies]

That was inevitable.
posted by DaShiv at 6:50 AM on May 2, 2005

Also, this fpp looks terrible on the front page. Sorry for the bad formatting.
posted by dfowler at 7:04 AM on May 2, 2005

It would be nice to see the raw data and questionnaire from that 3rd link. It may be contributive to an overall picture looking at potential causes for breast cancer. But it might just be that the whole study was slanted towards supporting a preformed hypothesis from the beginning. It's mighty intuitive otherwise, if all other possible causations were assessed and these alleged* hydrocarbon exposures at specific points in life were the only significant statistics generated.

There's also a lot of data and questions that need crunching with respect to the lower incidence of breast cancer among south Asian women in order to find a protective mechanism. Environmental or genetic seem the most likely avenues for further consideration. It reminds me of my becoming more educated here in MeFi recently about reduced cervical cancer incidence among Jewish females being tied to an otherwise local genetic pool in Israel rather than the previous hypothesis that circumcision and lack of smegma played a role.

*By alleged, I just mean that merely living in a city with a certain smog emission level doesn't necessarily extrapolate into a mathematically pure exposure level. Other factors like time spent outdoors, use of airconditioning, floor level of appartment and no doubt a bunch of other variables would come into it I would think.

Thanks dfowler.

on prev: looks alright on my screen. They're worth separating slightly -- at least you didn't make them paragraphs.
posted by peacay at 7:07 AM on May 2, 2005

I believe there is quite a bit of evidence that exposure to carcinogens during the formation of breast tissue (early to mid teens for most girls) is a major factor in non-genetic breast cancers. ie if you smoke while your breasts are developing you are far more likely to develop cancer than if you smoke the same number of cigarettes later in life.
posted by fshgrl at 7:26 AM on May 2, 2005

fshgrl, developmental risk sounds eminently logical.
posted by peacay at 7:50 AM on May 2, 2005

Could be diet, could be genetics, could be something else. But to be safe, people should buy green tea capsules of questionable efficacy, take a bottle and a half over six weeks time and then move on to the next miracle cure without thinking of green tea again until forced to clean out the medicine cabinet.

My sources tell me that the next cool cancer prevention will be guinea pig extract. Native americans of Ecuador have astoundingly low cancer rates.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:22 AM on May 2, 2005

*Recalls fondly another time Mayor Curley was a snarky asshole*
posted by dfowler at 8:36 AM on May 2, 2005

Yeah, I was on that, day, huh? But I thought my second comment was some of my best work-- a sarcastic critique of New Age attitudes but I was careful to demonstrate that I have a working knowledge of the philiosophy in question.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:53 AM on May 2, 2005

Funny how several people in that thread recognized your assholery that day and called you on it, Mayor. They asked you what the fuck your problem is. You proud of that? I see you haven't changed.

Do me a favor in the future -- think of it as something clever which people will think is funny since that seems to be the objective of your trolling: stay the fuck off my threads in the future, got it?
posted by dfowler at 9:09 AM on May 2, 2005

Wow...I didn't think the Mayor was an asshole in that Buddhist thread - cynical yes, like here today.
But Mayor, you fuckin' cracked me up the other day with this. Now that was some precision assholery.
posted by peacay at 9:19 AM on May 2, 2005

Yeah, ol' Mayor sure is a hoot.

I got a joke for you Mayor. See, Ed Muskie's wife is at this bean supper...
posted by dfowler at 9:27 AM on May 2, 2005

Since Mayor has trolled his way to some attention today, the curious can read how he took over another of my threads and was called on it by a bunch of people.

Anyone want to discuss the breast cancer links?
posted by dfowler at 9:46 AM on May 2, 2005

(In a vain attempt to get back on target, while simultaneously attempting to be snarky and 'clever' which will no doubt offend someone)

I'm just waiting for the day when scientists around the world announce that "America causes cancer" which leads to the requirement for all Americans to go around with a big Surgeon Generals' Warning sewed into the seat of their pants. "Interacting with this person could contain carbon monoxide and may complicate pregnancy." Seems rather inevitable.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:47 AM on May 2, 2005

Well, this is it, kids. It's been a pleasure chatting with nearly all of you here. Au revoir.
posted by dfowler at 10:46 AM on May 2, 2005

Is drinking green tea an ingrained habit among people from Pakistan?
posted by TimothyMason at 11:18 AM on May 2, 2005

I thought Asian women has less breast cancer because they had smaller boobs...
posted by anthill at 3:55 PM on May 2, 2005

Well, this is it, kids. It's been a pleasure chatting with nearly all of you here. Au revoir.

Once again, dfowler and/or his alter ego make a dramatic exit, quickly followed by a blithe re-entrance.

Fascinating.
posted by soyjoy at 10:17 AM on May 3, 2005

In the UK context "Asian" generally means from the subcontinent, ie Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:01 PM on May 3, 2005