annamikey
10-14-2004, 08:14 AM
source: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1097704210242&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Risk for cancer starts at early age
ELAINE CAREY
MEDICAL REPORTER
The risk factors for breast cancer start early in a woman's life, even before birth, according to a major new study.
High birth weight, a growth spurt between the ages of 8 and 14, and being a tall, thin adolescent are independent risk factors for breast cancer, says the study of 117,415 Danish women in today's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"What it shows is that we have to search for developments in risks for breast cancer very early in life," said Dr. Mads Melbye, a Copenhagen researcher and one of the study's authors.
The study is the first to pull these early risk factors together, he said in an interview, and "the picture is very clear. This is the first study to disentangle the story around adolescence.
"Growth in utero, at puberty and just before puberty are critical points where we could put more research emphasis," Melbye said. "These factors may only be markers for something else. It's premature to actually direct people to do something."
In fact, low birth weight can lead to other health problems, while high birth weight, greater height and lower weight can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, an accompanying editorial says.
The study examined Danish women, born between 1930 and 1975, who had gone through regular medical exams in Copenhagen schools, and linked them to a Danish health database and a breast cancer registry.
It shows that "breast cancer doesn't necessarily start as an adult — it's already in childhood," said Dr. Karin Michels, a pediatric cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School, who wrote the editorial.
While many of the factors can't or shouldn't be controlled, a growth spurt between 8 and 14 can be, to some extent, by diet, she said in an interview.
For example, Japanese women used to have low breast-cancer rates, but in the past five decades, as they have adopted a Western diet, women have grown taller and their rate of breast cancer has increased steadily, Michels said.
Children get growth hormones in meat, poultry and milk, she said, and that stimulates the body's own growth factors. Feeding them more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and cutting back on meat, poultry and milk will lower some of the risk, she said.
Risk for cancer starts at early age
ELAINE CAREY
MEDICAL REPORTER
The risk factors for breast cancer start early in a woman's life, even before birth, according to a major new study.
High birth weight, a growth spurt between the ages of 8 and 14, and being a tall, thin adolescent are independent risk factors for breast cancer, says the study of 117,415 Danish women in today's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"What it shows is that we have to search for developments in risks for breast cancer very early in life," said Dr. Mads Melbye, a Copenhagen researcher and one of the study's authors.
The study is the first to pull these early risk factors together, he said in an interview, and "the picture is very clear. This is the first study to disentangle the story around adolescence.
"Growth in utero, at puberty and just before puberty are critical points where we could put more research emphasis," Melbye said. "These factors may only be markers for something else. It's premature to actually direct people to do something."
In fact, low birth weight can lead to other health problems, while high birth weight, greater height and lower weight can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, an accompanying editorial says.
The study examined Danish women, born between 1930 and 1975, who had gone through regular medical exams in Copenhagen schools, and linked them to a Danish health database and a breast cancer registry.
It shows that "breast cancer doesn't necessarily start as an adult — it's already in childhood," said Dr. Karin Michels, a pediatric cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School, who wrote the editorial.
While many of the factors can't or shouldn't be controlled, a growth spurt between 8 and 14 can be, to some extent, by diet, she said in an interview.
For example, Japanese women used to have low breast-cancer rates, but in the past five decades, as they have adopted a Western diet, women have grown taller and their rate of breast cancer has increased steadily, Michels said.
Children get growth hormones in meat, poultry and milk, she said, and that stimulates the body's own growth factors. Feeding them more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and cutting back on meat, poultry and milk will lower some of the risk, she said.