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Preventing breast cancer: is it possible?
1University Department of Surgery, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, Nedlands, Western Australia.
The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery
|December 1, 1991
Summary
Preventing breast cancer is crucial in Australia. Hormone manipulation and lifestyle changes show promise in reducing incidence, though more research is needed for non-hormonal methods.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Preventive Medicine
- Public Health
Background:
- Breast cancer remains a significant cause of mortality and suffering in Australia.
- Current detection and treatment improvements offer limited impact on mortality and do not alleviate suffering.
- Preventive strategies are essential to reduce breast cancer incidence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review potential preventive measures for reducing breast cancer incidence.
- To evaluate the effectiveness and practicality of various risk factor reduction strategies.
- To explore the potential of hormone manipulation and chemoprevention for breast cancer prevention.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on breast cancer risk factors and preventive strategies.
- Analysis of the potential impact of lifestyle modifications (diet, weight, alcohol, activity).
- Evaluation of hormonal interventions, including luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists and tamoxifen, and potential non-hormonal chemoprevention.
Main Results:
- Reducing exposure to known risk factors has limited potential for population-level impact.
- Lifestyle changes like weight reduction and reduced fat/alcohol intake may offer partial success.
- Hormone manipulation, specifically LHRH agonists with estrogen or tamoxifen, shows potential to halve breast cancer incidence.
- Non-hormonal chemoprevention is a possibility, but requires further clinical trial data.
Conclusions:
- Preventive measures are a logical approach to reduce breast cancer burden.
- Hormone manipulation strategies offer significant potential for reducing breast cancer incidence.
- Further investigation into lifestyle interventions and non-hormonal chemoprevention is warranted.