ARIZ / October 2011 / Breast Cancer – Cause and Consequences

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Breast Cancer – Cause and Consequences

Pick a new battleground in the "fight" against cancer, says Scottsdale's Dr. Martha Grout

Are we picking the wrong battleground? We fight the cancers with ever more research dollars and ever more screening for early detection, and still the incidence grows. Maybe we need to look further at the multiple things that we know can cause cells to mutate into cancer cells, and figure out whether we have any control over those things.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

In 2002 there was big excitement about the dangers of hormone replacement therapy, based on results from the Women’s Health Initiative study sponsored by the NIH and the National Cancer Institute. Women who were treated with estrogens (pharmaceutical, derived from horse urine) and progestins (also pharmaceutical, derived from horse urine) had increased risk of developing breast cancer, urinary incontinence, heart disease, stroke, and blood clots. There was a doubled risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, according to JAMA, 2003. The estrogen alone study (which used Premarin, a horse estrogen) caused increased incidence of blood clots. On the plus side, hormone therapy (even the horse-derived non-bioidentical hormones) was associated with a decreased incidence of colon cancer and osteoporosis.

Women all over the country stopped their hormone replacement therapy abruptly.

Hormones regulate the menstrual cycle and the formation of sperm in the testes. They influence all the endocrine glands, especially the thyroid. They influence one’s mood. They help us to maintain strong healthy bones.

Maybe there was something wrong with the form of hormones that were used. None of the studies used bioidentical hormones. Synthetic estrogens are derived from horse urine, and have different shapes and different chemical groups than human estrogens. Horse estrogens are metabolized very well by horses, and not so well by humans.

None of the studies measured the ability of the women to metabolize the hormones through methylation, a process used by the liver to convert substances into a harmless form. None measured the carcinogenic (2-OH) form of estrogen in the women’s urine as compared with the harmless (4-OH) form. None measured the different estrogen metabolites (byproducts) in the urine (2-OH vs 16-OH, the 16-OH being less safe).

Bottom line: horse estrogens are relatively unsafe for human women. But even human estrogens at high levels may be associated with increased incidence of breast cancer, according to one study (which also did not measure the metabolism of the hormone).

OK, so we don’t have any formal studies showing a benefit of hormone therapy that actually take into account our metabolism of the hormones. This simply suggests that we should check hormone metabolism before we prescribe hormones, and do something to improve the metabolism. That way we can still get the benefit of hormones without (presumably) the risks.

Avoidance of Chemicals

A study published in BMC Medicine, 2011, shows that breast cancer incidence is far higher in Japanese women living in Brazil than in those living in Japan. The article did talk about long-term exposure to environmental and dietary factors in Brazil, but declined to comment on food intake because they used different questionnaires for different groups, and because the American Institute for Cancer Research report showed no convincing evidence of influence of food. Therefore, apparently, the conclusion was that food intake had no relevance.

One should question that conclusion. Intake of animal protein is increasing in Brazil. Brazilian beef is treated with growth hormones, just like the beef in the United States. Could there be a connection between estrogenic hormone treatment of beef, high beef consumption, and incidence of cancer? We do not have any placebo-controlled double-blind studies demonstrating the connection – who would dare? But it’s an association of which we should be aware.

Perhaps indeed the consumption of a more plant-based diet is healthier in the long run for us as individuals – although perhaps not for the beef industry.

How Do We Protect Ourselves?

• Make sure that if we are going to use hormone replacement therapy, it is with bioidentical hormones (whether our insurance pays for them or not).
• Make sure that we test the metabolism of hormones, so that we can, if necessary, take specific supplements to promote metabolism to a safer form of estrogens.
• Move toward a more plant-based diet, and buy only meats which have not been treated with hormones.
• Use thermography for screening purposes, to avoid exposing the breasts to radiation.

Martha M Grout, MD, MD(H) is Medical Director for the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine in Scottsdale. The Center is dedicated to the treatment of chronic illness by means which support the body’s own functions of repair and regeneration. For more information, visit ArizonaAdvancedMedicine.com or phone 480-240-2600.