Centered on Breast Cancer

Abstract

A relationship between early menarche in girls and later development of breast cancer has long been observed. Some environmental factors, such as diet and exposure to endocrine disruptors and other chemicals, could affect children’s timing and pace of puberty and development. This leads to the question of whether exposure to these agents may also lead to breast cancer later in life. That is the scientific premise for the establishment of the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers (BCERCs), which presented results of ongoing studies at their third annual meeting on 2–3 November 2006. The centers are co-funded by the NIEHS and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program. They work together to integrate community outreach and two lines of research: 1) basic biology of the mammary gland and its development using animal models, and 2) epidemiological studies of how environmental factors affect puberty in girls. Four centers were established across the nation: the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia (collaborating with Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the University of Alabama at Birmingham), the University of Cincinnati in Ohio (collaborating with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center), the University of California, San Francisco (collaborating with numerous partners including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), and Michigan State University in East Lansing. “Using a transdisciplinary scientific approach, the centers are able to investigate possible windows of susceptibility during pubertal development more comprehensively and on a larger scale,” said Shannon Lynch, a program analyst at the NCI. The BCERCs’ ability to work closely together, share resources, compare findings, and establish common research protocols is especially important in epidemiological studies. With each center recruiting a number of girls from diverse racial/ ethnic, geographical, and socioeconomic backgrounds, the data that are ultimately generated should be more robust due to a greater number of samples that are more representative of different populations.