The Journey Toward Breast Cancer Prevention

By Vera Viner

If your family history includes breast cancer, you may want to be very diligent in preventing the disease for the sake of your own health. While some so-called experts may not mention any prevention strategies and only push forward early diagnosis tactics, the Breast Health and Healing Foundation is dedicated to determining the causes of breast cancer and preventing this disease.

On its website, the Mayo Clinic provides key advice on how to prevent breast cancer. The first step is to limit the amount of alcohol you consume on a regular basis. You should be consuming no more than one drink per day of alcohol regardless of whether it is wine, champagne, beer, or liquor.

New evidence has shown that there may be a link between smoking cigarettes and breast cancer rates. And, of course, smoking significantly raises your risk of lung cancer. Staying away from these cancer-causing sticks can be one of the best things you will ever do for your health.

In addition, it is vital to keep your weight at healthy levels. Obese women are much more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, especially after menopause. Make sure to keep track of your weight regardless of your age. This will keep you healthier and reduce your risk of breast cancer.

Another hugely important area to focus on is exercise or physical activity. This will allow you to control your weight and, in turn, prevent cancer. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends for adults to get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity every week as well as take part in strength training at least twice per week.

In addition, research shows that women who breastfed their young are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer later in life. Another step in our breast cancer prevention journey is to avoid hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The World Health Organization has determined that HRT is harmful for women and raises breast cancer risk. Additionally, it is important to avoid environmental pollutants and radiation exposure. Both of these entities can increase your chances of contracting cancer.

A healthy, plant-based diet can also help boost your health and potentially prevent some types of cancers. For example, the publication Newswisereported on a study that focused on the evidence linking vitamin D to breast cancer prevention.

“In recent years, the scientific evidence linking vitamin D to breast cancer has grown notably. Several systematic reviews including randomized clinical trials have recently focused on vitamin D and health outcomes. However, so far, no systematic review has specifically addressed the role of vitamin D supplementation in breast cancer prevention,” Professor Antonio Giordano, a renowned oncologist, told the news source. “New trials specifically tailored on the vitamin D-cancer- binomious are in progress and should provide additional information in a few years’ time.”

Following these steps toward breast cancer prevention will be important in improving your quality of life, especially if you have family members who were diagnosed with breast cancer. By using these strategies, you’ll be that much more likely to lead a long happy and healthy life.

A High Class Problem: Funding A Preventive Breast Cancer Vaccine

By Dr. Kathleen Ruddy
The hardest part about funding the world’s first preventive breast cancer vaccine is developing a vaccine worth funding.

The good news is, the hardest part is over.  Professor Vincent Tuohy of the Cleveland Clinic developed such a vaccine over the course of 10 years and published his results in Nature Medicine in 2010.  Tuohy’s vaccine is 100% effective in preventing breast cancer in three animals models and is completely safe.

The next step is to conduct a Phase I study to see if the vaccine is safe for use in women.  If safe, the vaccine can then be tested to see if it is effective.

Preliminary data indicate that Tuohy’s vaccine is particularly effective against triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and lethal form of the disease.  This is especially important for women who carry BRCA mutations, for in the majority of cases,  breast cancers in these women tend to be triple-negative.

But while it’s a joy to report that we finally have a viable preventive breast cancer vaccine to test, I’m afraid we have another high class problem to solve:  getting funding for a Phase I clinical study to see if Tuohy’s vaccine is safe for use in women.  If it’s both safe and effective, we will finally have a way to prevent breast cancer the same way we prevent cervical cancer, polio, and smallpox – with a vaccine.

Don’t get me wrong:  cures for breast cancer are needed, and they’ll be needed for a long time to come, for complete testing of any vaccine can take as long as ten years, start to finish.  So even if we were to begin testing the vaccine, say, tomorrow morning, there will still be another 1.5 million women diagnosed with breast cancer around the world this year, and every year thereafter more women will be added to the roster, as this is the most common female malignancy in every single country in the world.  At the moment, there are nearly 3 million breast cancer survivors living in the United States – with the sword of Damocles (recurrence and death) hanging over their collective heads.  Our first priority must be, and always has been, to take care of the women who already have the disease.  But what about the rest of us?  Who is taking care of us?  What is being done to lower our risk, find the causes of breast cancer, or prevent the disease?

Not very much.  Which is why we need to test this vaccine to see if it is safe.  A Phase I study of the world’s first preventive breast cancer vaccine must be funded now, not when the system finally gets around to it, which is usually in about 100 years.

Funding a Phase I study of Tuohy’s vaccine is a high class problem with one solution:  JUST SAY YES.

Attention, Please: We Have Begun Our Final Approach

By Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy

The Breast Health and Healing Foundation (501c3) is the only breast cancer foundation whose goal is primary prevention of breast cancer.  Our mission is “To discover the specific causes of breast cancer and to use that knowledge to prevent the disease.”  Over the past five years, our objectives have been to educate women about the known and proven ways they can reduce their risk for breast cancer, support research on the viral cause of human breast cancer, support funding for the world’s first preventive breast cancer vaccine (aka, the “Pink Vaccine“) developed at the Cleveland Clinic in 2010, and insist that if breast cancer is preventable in ~30% of cases – which it is – that 30% of the money devoted to breast cancer research be spent trying to do so!

Of special interest at the moment is the important matter of securing funding for a Phase I study of the Pink Vaccine.  A Phase I study is designed to see if the Pink Vaccine is safe for use in women.  It has been proven safe and effective in three animals models studied in Professor Vincent Tuohy’s laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic – he created the vaccine and published his results in Nature Medicine in May 2010; now we must see if it is safe for use in women.  If it is safe, then we can see if it is effective in preventing breast cancer.  (Note:  it was 100% effective in preventing breast cancer in three animal models:  see the Nature Medicine paper for details.)

A word of explanation appears to be in order, as there is some confusion about what, exactly, a preventive breast cancer vaccine is and does.  Like the polio vaccine, a preventive breast cancer vaccine would, well, prevent breast cancer.   I have heard recently that some ‘experts’ have suggested to the public that the Pink Vaccine could only be used after a breast cancer was diagnosed, and only after the extent of disease is determined.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Think about this:  Who waits for a child to become sick, and then be diagnosed with polio, and then evaluated for extent of disease, before giving the child a polio vaccine?  No one.  As you well know, the polio vaccine is meant to be given before the child ever gets polio, so that the child never gets the disease.  Right?  Right.  The same is true for the Pink Vaccine.  So, if you happen to hear, or overhear, someone say that the Pink Vaccine cannot be used until a woman is first diagnosed with breast cancer and then evaluated for extent of disease, rest assured, the speaker (‘expert’ or not) is either sadly confused, or worse – intentionally trying to confuse the audience in order to promote some self-serving invention, treatment, trick, or gig along the party line, a race for the cure.

I’m for the Pure Cure - prevention.  The Pink Vaccine prevents breast cancer in animals, safely and effectively.  I believe we owe it to humanity, especially women, to see if it’s safe for use in humans.  Every day of further dithering delay and obstruction is intolerable given the suffering this disease inflicts on millions of women around the world.  If the Pink Vaccine is proven to be safe, then we will be able to see if it is effective in preventing, possibly even treating, breast cancer.

As I say, we have now begun our final approach toward the prevention of breast cancer.  Our goal at Breast Health and Healing is to land safely in a place where women no longer get breast cancer because they have a vaccine to prevent it.

Good-bye polio.  Good-bye small pox.  Good-bye breast cancer.  A vaccine.  A preventive breast cancer vaccine.

Seat backs up.  Tray tables locked.  Safety belts fastened tight and low across your laps.  We have begun our final approach.  Thank you for flying with us.  Come again.