ramazzini strikes again! hormone <--> breast cancer connection

[ttweed@wildrockies.org (Tony Tweedale)]

  ramazzini strikes again!
  
  also, the may '97 _ehp_ mentions that a g.t. beatson in _lancet_, 1898--one
  hundred years ago--noted that ovarectomized women get less breast cancer.
  ----
  
  
   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           NIEHS Contact: Tom Hawkins
   April 29, 1997                                                919/541-1402
   NIEHS PR #8-97                                                919/782-3009
  
  JOURNAL EXPLORES HORMONES, ENVIRONMENT AND BREAST CANCER
  
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  The influence of hormones, hormone metabolism and environmental hormones on
  breast cancer is the subject of the April Environmental Health Perspectives
  Supplements (Volume 105, Supplement 3) of the National Institute of
  Environmental Health Sciences.
  
  Although it begins with a note that knowledge of a relationship between
  hormones and breast cancer is more than 200 years old, the issue contains
  the most current research, in papers updated from a workshop at the Center
  for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane/Xavier University in New Orleans.
  The volume was edited by Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., a scientist with the World
  Resources Institute in Washington, D.C.
  
  Any member of the media can obtain a copy of this comprehensive survey of
  current breast cancer research by calling Tom Hawkins, at (919) 541-1402, or
  Bill Grigg at (919) 541-2605.
  
  In a co-authored introduction to the issue, Dr. Davis and Susan M. Sieber,
  Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute, write:
  
  "For more than 200 years, scientists have appreciated that breast cancer
  cannot arise without hormonal influences. In the 18th Century, the
  pioneering researcher on environmental medicine, Barnardo Ramazzini,
  observed that nuns had higher rates of breast cancer and speculated that
  this might be tied to the fact that they did not have children."
  
  Today hormonal influences that are of concern in breast cancer include
  exposures to endocrine-disrupting environmental chemicals.
  
  The journal supplement compiles 22 presentations under four section
  headings: Hormonal Metabolites as Biologic Markers and Breast Cancer Risk;
  Human Studies on Hormonal Metabolism and Breast Cancer; Effects of
  Environmental Exposures on Estrogenic Activity; and Establishing the Risks
  from Xenohormones.
  
  ###
  
  PLANNING AHEAD: The fourth in a series of NIEHS/National Toxicology Program
  conferences on environmental estrogens, Estrogens in the Environment IV:
  linking fundamental knowledge, risk assessment and public policy will be
  held July 20-23 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, Va., bringing
  together basic scientists and policy makers to assess the public health
  impact of these environmental estrogen exposures. For information, contact
  the NTP Liaison and Scientific Review Office (919) 541-0530.
  
  Back to: What's New at NIEHS? or [Image]
  
  
  tony tweedale