At the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium Dr. Leslie Bernstein, PHD, from the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, said that risk factors that may lead to breast cancer can be modified. Two of the changes cited were physical activity and dietary considerations.

Below is an excerpt from the Symposium press release posted December 10th at 20:27 on PR Newswire:

Risk factors for breast cancer can generally be divided into those that cannot be changed and those that can. Risk factors that cannot be changed include age, gender, race/ethnicity, early noncancerous changes in the breast,family history of breast cancer, age at first menstrual period, and age at menopause. Those that can be changed include pregnancy history (number of births, no births), removal of the ovaries prior to menopause, lactation, density of the breasts as shown during mammography, past radiation treatment, physical activity, postmenopausal obesity/adult weight gain, hormone therapy, and alcohol intake."

"Many women would prefer to consider lifestyle changes. Obesity in postmenopausal women (usually defined as a body mass index >27) is associated with increased risk, with about 7.6% of breast cancers in the United States attributable to obesity. Thus, simple weight loss is a feasible strategy. Exercise in women of reproductive age, especially in younger women and teenagers, can have a significant effect on the occurrence of breast cancer, possibly due to disturbances in the menstrual cycle that result in reduced hormone levels. Lifetime physical activity is associated with lower risk of invasive breast cancer among women in Europe and Asia and among Asian-American and Hispanic-American women. In contrast to the risk associated with obesity, in this case risk reduction is greater among women without a first degree family history of breast cancer.

There are also dietary factors that may affect breast cancer risk. For example, biologically active compounds from green tea have been shown to suppress the growth of human breast cancer cells injected into mice, and consumption of green tea is associated with reduced breast cancer risk in Asian-American women.

Dr. Bernstein pointed out that, as opposed to pharmacological and surgical strategies, these lifestyle changes have the advantage of being cost-effective and likely to meet with greater patient acceptance. Further research needs to address questions about the importance of age of exposure, duration of exposure, and exposure intensity, as well as the size of the benefit that can be obtained from lifestyle changes."

It would be nice if someone would release new information rather than a rehash of that already available. Aren't symposiums supposed to be about sharing and disseminating cutting edge research?