Breasts (34 page)
Authors: Florence Williams
Tags: #Life science, women's studies, health, women's health, environmental science
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.”
“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.
“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 Foundation 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.
Decades ago, microbiologist-turned-humanist René Dubos argued:
René Dubos,
Mirage of Health: Utopias, Progress, and Biological Change
(New York: Harper, 1959), pp. 29, 110-111.
Portions of this book appeared in different form in the
New York Times Magazine
as “Toxic Breast Milk” (from the
New York Times,
Jan. 9, 2005. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this content without express written permission is prohibited); in
Slate
as “My Ikea Couch Reeks of Chemicals” and “Younger Girls, Bigger Breasts”; and in
O, The Oprah Magazine
as “Do Breast Self-Exams Work? (And If Not, Why Do We Keep Doing Them?).”
Jayne Mansfield quote used by permission of CMG Brands.
Excerpt from
Heartburn
by Nora Ephron. Copyright © 1983 by Nora Ephron. Used by permission of ICM.
Chapter 1:
Joe Shere / MPTV Images
Chapter 2:
Fate
magazine, November 2000 / R. Crumb
Chapter
3:
Ivan Mateev
/
iStockphoto
Chapter 4:
Frederick’s of Hollywood, Inc.
Chapter 5:
George Silk / Getty Images
Chapter 6:
Gossard Lingerie
Chapter 7:
Bettmann / Corbis Images
Chapter 8:
Claire Reid Photography / Snugabell Mom & Baby Gear
Chapter 9:
Mauricio Alejo
Chapter 10:
MOMILK by Julien Bertheir
/
www.julienberthier.org
Chapter 12:
Patricia Izzo/
www.izzophotography.com
Chapter 13:
Fox Photos / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Chapter 14:
Chia Evers
1
Industry sources in both the United States and Europe contend the average size has increased to a C over the past decade. Mine have creeped up as well. In both cases, I’m afraid, the boost is largely attributed to weight gain.
1
The French royalty evidently had a thing for their organs. It is believed that Napoleon’s penis was removed from his body for posterity. In the 1920s, it was displayed in a blue velvet case at the Museum of French Art in New York, where one observer described it as looking “like a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace or shriveled eel.” It was offered for auction in 1981. It did not sell, leading one British tabloid to trumpet, “Not tonight, Josephine!”
1
Even recent journal articles, particularly in the plastic surgery field, continue to refer to micromastia as an “abnormal” or deformed condition, despite the fact that small breasts are in fact, perfectly normal. Breast-feeding is usually not a problem as the mammary gland grows considerably during pregnancy.
2
According to the seasoned fitting experts at Top Drawer, an esteemed Houston lingerie shop, it’s not unusual for women to break down crying because their implants are too big. “They’d tell the doctor they wanted a C cup,” said saleswoman Linda Parmley. “Doctors know ccs, not Cs.”)