Diet and Breast Cancer: Fine-tuning the Science

Washington, D.C. - American Institute for Cancer Research - infoZine - For example, pre-menopausal breast malignant neoplastic disease have surprisingly small in common with post-menopausal breast cancer. Similarly, breast tumours that incorporate receptors for oestrogen (ER-positive tumors) are different from tumours that don't have got those receptors (ER-negative tumors). Accounting for these differences, and respective others, is important to treatment - and likely for bar as well. Most headline-making consequences on diet and breast malignant neoplastic disease you hear about today come up from cohort surveys (studies that path a big grouping over respective years) that began a long clip ago - before men of science understood the differentiations between types of breast cancer. So a survey that analyzes, for example, the nexus between a certain nutrient and breast cancer, may simply be grouping all the women in the survey who developed breast malignant neoplastic disease together. But focusing on one sort of breast malignant neoplastic disease or another agency that these formerly big cohort surveys (of perhaps 1,000 breast malignant neoplastic disease cases) are really surveys of a few hundred of the assorted types, which intends less certainty overall. Distinguishing the pre- Oregon post-menopausal, ER-negative or -positive breast malignant neoplastic diseases intends the determinations for one grouping won't acquire watered down by mixing them with all the other types of breast cancer. We necessitate big cohort surveys that expression specifically at each different type of breast malignant neoplastic disease and inquire topics more elaborate inquiries from the beginning. And we necessitate to allow the surveys run long adequate for each different class of breast malignant neoplastic disease to demo up in important numbers. This demand doesn't invalidate all those surveys on diet and breast malignant neoplastic disease that you've been reading about for years. Their focusing is simply becoming more than refined so of import connexions between the complex human diet and different types of breast malignant neoplastic disease may be found. Today's men of science are collecting elaborate information about things like diet during adolescence (because research bespeaks breast tissues are particularly sensitive to dietary influence during breast development), physical activity (type, strength and duration) and a host of other factors. However, these surveys are only the beginning, and it may take old age for these surveys to accomplish the sort of statistical powerfulness necessary to pull conclusions. In the meantime, the most of import thing to maintain in head is this: don't see any single survey as definitive, no substance how big it is and how much statistical powerfulness it packs. As we go on to polish the survey of breast malignant neoplastic disease prevention, it will still be necessary to look for understanding among different surveys and analyze any new consequences in the linguistic context of determinations that have got come up before. The AICR is continuously compiling high-quality data to assist men of science and the public understand the large image for malignant neoplastic disease prevention.