Increased 60 percent in breast cancer

[Guest guest]

----- Original breast cancer vs. the affluent

 

 

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/03/24/IN1\

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San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, March 24, 2002

 

Unseen killer stalks Marin

 

Joan Ryan (E-mail: joanryan)

 

 

It is a mystery that frustrates research scientists like Tina Clarke of

the Northern California Cancer Center.

 

There is no logical reason Marin County -- where women hike pristine

trails, eat organic and see their doctors regularly -- has more breast

cancer than almost any place on Earth. There is no reason that the

numbers continue to climb.

 

The breast cancer rate in Marin has increased 60 percent between 1991

and 1999. But here's the stat that has sent a new wave of quiet panic

through the community: In a single year, from 1998 to 1999, the rate

jumped 20 percent.

 

" I've never seen a higher incidence than Marin, " said Clarke, who has

been puzzling over the numbers for several years. Here's what the

scientists do know:

 

Breast cancer disproportionately strikes white, affluent, college-

educated women, and Marin County has a higher concentration of those

than most places. Among white women ages 45 to 64 -- the population at

greatest risk -- Marin's breast cancer rate is 58 percent higher than

other Bay Area counties and 72 percent higher than other urban areas in

California.

 

Is there something in the lives of affluent, educated white women that

causes cancer? The types of food they eat? The chemicals in their

dry-cleaned clothing? Their beauty products, their hormone replacement

therapy, the pesticides on their lawns and roses? Could it even be they

are so diligent about getting mammograms that the frequent exposure to

radiation causes cancer growth?

 

" We put all this money into early detection, but that isn't preventing

the disease, " said Janice Barlow, executive director of a grassroots

group of activists called Marin Breast Cancer Watch. " Women in Marin get

mammograms. But the death rate here is 25 percent higher than the rest

of the Bay Area. We have to shift our focus from early screening to

prevention. "

 

What is particularly confounding to scientists and activists is that 50

percent of Marin women with breast cancer have no established risk

factors. They didn't have children later in life. They didn't have a

family history of breast cancer. They didn't experience early puberty.

They didn't have late menopause.

 

" We are way underfunded for research, " said Barlow of Marin Breast

Cancer Watch. Women in Long Island, where cancer rates are also

high -- but not as high as Marin's -- got $40 million from the New York

State Legislature to find out why. Marin has received a few hundred

thousand dollars in research funds.

 

Said Clarke of the Northern California Cancer Center, " It's very

frustrating. We have less than two full-time people to work on this. We

need money to hire more epidemiologists to study the existing data.

There is lots of data, but there aren't enough people to study it. "

 

Some studies are already under way. The county is mapping the incidence

of breast cancer by address, trying to go back 25 years at each

residence. They hope to find cancer clusters that help to narrow the

focus to particular neighborhoods. Marin Breast Cancer Watch is also

collecting data on Marin's environment: what's in the landfills and dump

sites, how much mercury is in the old gold mines in West Marin, what

pesticides have been used over the years, how much naturally occurring

asbestos is in the serpentine rock found throughout the county.

 

Larry Meredith, director of Marin's Health and Human Services

Department, and Marin Supervisor Annette Rose flew to Washington, D.C.,

last week to get help. They talked to top scientists, hoping to persuade

them to study Marin. They talked to legislators, asking for research

money. They know the mystery of breast cancer in Marin won't be solved

by Marin alone. And they know they have no time to waste.

 

" For many women, including my wife, " Meredith said, " it's not a

question\ in their minds any more of if they get breast cancer but

when. "