by Barbara Brenner
Knight Ridder-Tribune
People living with breast cancer wait for big news from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Era of Hope Meeting with bated breath, eager for the breakthrough that could prolong lives.
Having been a peer reviewer for the breast cancer research program of the Department of Defense, I have come to view these gatherings less as venues for significant scientific revelations and more as wasted opportunities to focus on what, beyond our genes, may be causing breast cancer.
Back in 1998, attendees of this conference were overjoyed about angiogenesis research. We were told then, with much fanfare, that if we could just figure out how cancer creates its own blood supply, we might be able to cure breast cancer. Four years later, that much-ballyhooed notion has not translated into any effective or available treatment for breast cancer.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Earlier this month, in fact, biotech giant Genentech announced that its drug Avastin, designed to thwart the blood supply to tumors, was ineffective in treating late-stage breast cancer. The drug failed to slow the disease or improve survival rates. It was yet another disappointing result for a drug once considered a promising breast cancer treatment.
Almost daily we hear reports about the promise of advances in breast cancer treatment, but the fact is this: The vast majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer this year will be faced with essentially the same treatment choices - surgery, radiation and chemotherapy - that women faced nearly 30 years ago. And the "cure" for breast cancer remains a far-too-distant dream.
Prevention First, a new coalition of independent health organizations, is prescribing a different approach. This year we urge the researchers about to gather for this year's Department of Defense conference to take the time to sit down and really listen to the growing chorus in the breast cancer community that is demanding research into the causes for breast cancer.
Only by restructuring the research agenda will we ever be able to move toward a future with effective, individualized treatments and the promise of true breast cancer prevention. Exploring and coming to understand the causes of breast cancer, especially environmental causes, will give us the science we need to support policies that will clean up the environment and begin to stem the rising tide of the breast cancer epidemic.
We hope that this year researchers will leave the Department of Defense meeting determined to expose the root causes of breast cancer. Then we will be in a position to start to work together to really prevent cancer and other ills by cleaning up our air, water and food.
