Popular Science Essay
Over 220,000 Americans each year develop breast cancer per the CDC. About 40,000 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer die each year. And men are not excluded from those numbers. 2,000 men are being diagnosed each year with breast cancer and about 400 die each year due to breast cancer. Breast cancer is disease involving the abnormal cell growth of breast tissue with the potential to spread to other parts of the body. However, recently published research by Dr. Fang Fang Zhang has called into question a previously established relationship between soy and breast cancer development in Americans. Soy oil, from soybeans, are commonly used in the production of food. More specifically, women in Asian countries are known to consume more soy on regular basis than American women. Previous research has suggested that the consumption of soy may increase the risk of developing breast cancer. The mechanism is still unclear
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There are two that involve the estrogen hormone. One type is estrogen and progesterone sensitive and has been coined as estrogen- and progesterone-positive cancer. The other is estrogen- and progesterone-negative cancer. The women that consumed more soy, around a half to one serving per week, were 21% less likely to die over the study’s nine year follow up when compared to the women who ate less soy. “We should not recommend that women with breast cancer avoid soy. Because we found no evidence to support that it’s harmful.” But Dr. Zhang isn’t completely ready to recommend that all women who are diagnosed with breast cancer to start eating soy to starve off death. Her study is finished, but more research and more information is needed to better understand the relationship between soy and breast cancer. “It’s encouraging that despite the overall low consumption [of soy], women living in North America still benefit from increasing
There are many different diseases that terrorize the human race every day. Of all of these sicknesses, one of the most devastating is breast cancer. Breast cancer touches all types of people all over the world each day. It is actually the second most common cancer amongst women in the United States. One in every eight women in the United States has some form of breast cancer and currently, the death rates are higher than any other cancer with the exception of lung cancer. Cancer is defined by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary as “a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.” Therefore, breast cancer is a disease of
After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States. Among Hispanic women, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death. In all other races, it is the second leading cause of cancer-related death (Northington et al, 2011). Causes of Breast
Chemicals are also suspected to cause breast cancer. Xenoestrogens are chemicals with estrogen-like effects, they are found in pesticides and other common industrial products. Other estrogen-like chemicals that have a stronger association with breast cancer include dieldrin and beta-hexachloraocyclohexane. Although these chemicals are very weak estrogens, one study showed that exposure to single weak-estrogen compounds isn’t a big risk but a combination of two or more chemicals result in extremely high estrogenic
The effect of cell death invasion, or better known as apoptosis, on cancer cells is influenced by a couple of factors. The first factor is that flaxseed may influence tumors through both endocrine and nonendocrine mechanisms. It may also be influenced by the attribution to high concentrations of lignans and ALA. The second factor that effects apoptosis is when estrogen metabolism is affected by flaxseed and omega-3 fatty acids. Consuming, or not consuming flaxseed, leads estrogen into “good” or “bad” categories. Good estrogen, better known as 2-Hydroxyesterone, protects against cancer, where as bad estrogen, 16-Alpha-Hydroxyestrone, increases the risk of breast cancer (Thompson, 2005). Overall, flaxseed contains antioxidant properties
Milk contains growth factors that enhance and stimulate growth and development of different organs in infants. Adults’ bodies also absorb those growth factors. However, adults’ cells don’t need to multiply as fast as youngsters anymore. Aside from stimulating growth rate in normal cells, they also speed up the growth of damaged cells caused by harmful substances in our environment. If the DNA or RNA in an adult’s body’s DNA or RNA is damaged, a person is in greater risk of getting cancer (“Milk Cause Cancer Too”, 2007). Recent research by a Harvard researcher, Dr. Davaasambuu, also supports the statement of milk causing cancer. She cited a study in 42 countries comparing cancer rates showed that cancer rates are highest in countries with high rates of consumption of dairy products. These countries are Switzerland and Denmark, and the lowest in Algeria. There is also a link between the rising rates of dairy products consumption and the increased death rates from prostate cancer. Even breast cancer is also associated with the consumption rate
Such findings, all of which relate to hormone-based life events, suggest that breast cancer is somehow affected by prolonged exposure to female sex hormones, such as estrogen. Women with a history of breast cancer in the family are also at greater risk. About five percent of all breast cancers have been attributed to a mutated, or structurally altered, gene known as BRCA1. Mutations in a second gene, BRCA2, contribute significantly to the development of breast cancer in Jewish women. Alcohol, high levels of fat in the diet, and not exercising regularly have also been linked to increased risk for breast cancer (Garber).
Generally speaking, throughout the United States, Cancer is a public health concern that has a significant impact amongst both men and women. At the same time, Breast Cancer indicates development of a tumor from cells in the breast known as a malignant tumor. Breast Cancer can begin at two different points, either the cells of the lobules, that are milk-producing glands, or the ducts, a channel draining milk from the lobule to the nipple (“What is Breast Cancer,” 2016). Specifically speaking about Breast Cancer among women, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2016), it is the most common cancer, regardless of ethnicity or race. Under those
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and the 2nd most leading cause of their death. It is estimated that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their life time and it will claim as many as 40,000 lives in the US only.( http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-cancer-facts)
People all over the world are affected by cancer everyday. It is estimated that every day of 2015, 68 Canadian women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer affects people of all ages in a direct or indirect way. Every 23 seconds someone gets breast cancer, and every 59 seconds someone dies from breast cancer. Breast cancer is a very large topic around the world
Breast cancer constitutes the second most prevalent cancer most common among women of the world with an estimated 1.62 million reported cases in 2012 which constitutes 25% of all cancer cases and ranks fifth among mortality due to cancer (Ferlay et al., 2015). In the United States, according to American Cancer Society an
Researchers in the New York State Department of Health have found that women on Long Island who grew up within a mile of a chemical plant have a greater chance of getting breast cancer if they lived further away from the chemical plant.
The reason why I am touching on this subject is because breast cancer is the most common disease that affects women across the United States. This is known as the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 30 and 40, but some can happen in their 20s. Statistics show “According to the National Cancer Institute, one in eight women who live to be age 80 will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. This makes the disease the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women, after skin cancer.” (www.cancer.gov) Breast cancer is a lump found in the breast in which cells become abnormal and multiply uncontrollably, forming a tumor. Malignant cells begin to spread if untreated to original tumor which causes inflammation in the breast
According to the American Cancer Society, Each year, more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer; furthermore Twelve percent of all women will contract the disease, and 3.5% of them will die from breast cancer (American Cancer Society, 2005). There are risk factors that may lead to breast cancer. There are 4 stages of breast cancer and several treatments, although treatments vary from types and stages of breast cancer. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women who are 40 to 55 years old (Breast Cancer, 2009).Cancer occurs when cells divide uncontrollably. It changes from a normal cell to cancerous cells that require gene alterations. Therefore the altered genes and the uncontrolled growth may lead to tumors.
“The Breast are considered to be in the reproductive system because they are able to produce milk during childbirth” ("Breast Pictures, Anatomy & Anatomy | Body Maps," 2005). There are many risk factors that increase a woman’s chances of developing breast cancer, but it is not yet known exactly how some of these risk factors cause cells to become cancerous. Some of the few risk factors that are included are taking
The Human Experiment, a 2013 documentary, not only explores the idea that chemicals are found in everyday products, it also focuses on how large unregulated corporations are putting “profits before people” by not bothering to consider how the chemicals they are using in the products we use everyday are having an enormous impact on our health. Although the film claims that since 1975 there has been a 30% increase in breast cancer in both men and women, male breast cancer is rare and accounts for only about 1% of all breast cancers (Conrad, n.d.) . One of the concerns is that despite the fact that men do not consume birth control pills, they do not give birth, and later in life does not have the necessity to start hormone replacement therapy as a treatment for menopause, in last forty years doctors have seen the same increase in breast cancer in both men and women. Additionally, recent studies show that number of young women diagnosed with breast cancer is occurring at alarming rates in otherwise healthy young women under the age of twenty five.