Cancer awareness blogs

Is breast cancer avoidable?

By Sheryl
April 7, 2010

A friend of mine recently emailed me the link to an article, “One in 3 Breast Cancer Cases May be Avoidable,” along with a quick note that said, “I can’t wait to hear your reaction to this.”

After thanking her, I thought about her comment and realized that she must be as thrown by this as me. (I didn’t ask her, but think I will. In fact, I’m hoping she’ll comment here.)

When I refer to “thrown” I mean it in a few ways. Let me explain.

The article, as reported by the Associated Press on msnbc.com and many other news channels, states that up to a third of breast cancer cases in Western countries could be avoided if women ate less and exercised more. It also states that the researchers who reported this renewed a “sensitive debate about how lifestyle factors affect the disease.”

I’ll say it’s sensitive. Yes, it is true that lifestyle factors can influence many cancers, breast cancer among them. (Just for fun, I googled “Lifestyle causes of breast cancer” and up came over 7 million results.) And legitimately, there are lifestyle factors like more exercise, less alcohol, and limiting fats, that can influence breast cancer prevention – to a degree. But not always.

What about those women – who, despite all best intentions – still develop breast cancer? After my diagnosis and even still today, I get questions. In addition to this most common one, “Did your mother, or anyone in your family, have breast cancer?” (What most people don’t realize is that only about 5% to 10% of breast cancer cases are thought to be hereditary, according to the ACS), I get this one: “Oh, you were so young! Were you as conscious about eating and exercise as you are now?” (Translation: somehow it must have been all your fault.)

My answers never fail to surprise (and hopefully, educate) some. No, no one in my family had breast cancer and yes, I was always careful with my health. I exercised, I ate right, and I was never overweight.

So, while I say it’s good to make women aware of what they can do to try to lessen their odds of getting a breast cancer diagnosis, what’s not good is spreading the reporting all over the news that they should be thinner and exercise more. And then – voila! –  they can avoid it. It’s important to remember that there are other major factors that can stand directly in the way of lifestyle modifications; factors that we inherit and can do little, if anything, to influence: gender and age and – although to a smaller degree – family history.

Perhaps the researchers got tired of sending the same old message of the importance of early diagnosis and screening. Maybe they thought it was time to come up with something new. Carlo La Vecchia, the head of epidemiology at the University of Milan, was quoted on msnbc.com as saying “What can be achieved with screening has been achieved. We can’t do much more. It’s time to move on to other things.”

I’m all about moving on, if moving on involves continuing to educate women on vital things like screening, awareness and healthy habits. I say those messages can always do more. There will always be a new generation of women who must be given the right to know all they can know about breast cancer, not just how to “avoid” it but how to make informed decisions about screening and awareness, too. That message should never, can never, get old.

I realize now that what offends me is the choice of the word “avoidable.” It involves blame. It conjures up the image of standing at a fork in the road, seeing potholes and danger on one side and absolute safety on the other, yet despite that big flashing sign, making a choice to go down the wrong road anyway.

Breast cancer is not always avoidable. Sometimes despite our best intentions, it happens.

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