There is Nothing More Powerful Than The Pure Cure: Prevention

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo

Indeed.  I recall when, five years ago, I first went to the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation in my neighborhood (Summit, New Jersey).  I told them about my discovery of the existence of a breast cancer virus, and I urged them to help support this research.  I also suggested that, in addition to their goal of finding a cure, they focus more attention on finding the causes of breast cancer and working for primary prevention of the disease.  I met with Komen’s staff on two occasions and they couldn’t have been nicer.  But despite my enthusiasm – some would say passion – they weren’t really interested in prevention, per se.  As I left the second meeting, they gave me a copy of an audit of their funding for the previous ten years and assured me they would get back in touch with me soon.  As you can imagine, I read their report with great interest.   That was when I discovered that only a small portion of their grants went to primary prevention of breast cancer.  Sadly, I noticed that this small portion had dwindled so much over the previous ten years that it was barely visible against the wedge of funding devoted to diagnosis and treatment.  When the Komen staff didn’t get back to me as they promised they would, I went elsewhere.

I went to my attorney, Jeffrey Pompeo.  It was April, 2008.  I was just finishing up the International Masters in Health Leadership at McGill University and I was looking for a way to apply my expertise as a breast cancer surgeon (I was trained at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) and my vision as a healthcare leader.  I told Jeff I wanted to steer my country’s ship more toward prevention of breast cancer, and that if Komen, the largest breast cancer foundation in the world, wasn’t interested in primary prevention of breast cancer, I intended to create one that was.  And, so, the Breast Health and Healing Foundation (501c3) was formed with the mission, “To discover the specific causes of breast cancer and to use that knowledge to prevent the disease.”

That done, I next approached the Avon Foundation in New York City.  I met with its director, Mark Hurlbert on two occasions.  Mark seemed to be genuinely interested in the idea of breast cancer prevention.  I was able to persuade him that primary prevention of breast cancer was an overlooked aspect of the “race for a cure”, and that the discovery of a mouse virus in human breast cancer specimens was worthy of support and further research.  He agreed.  He told me that the Avon Foundation intended to partner with Dr. Susan Love to create the Army of Women, and then he made an email introduction to Dr. Love on my behalf, explaining how passionate I was about finding the causes of breast cancer.  Dr. Love clearly agreed, for shortly thereafter, and upon the official launch of the Army of Women, Dr. Love appeared on “Good Morning America” talking about how we needed to find the causes of breast cancer and focus more on breast cancer prevention.  I was thrilled.  At last!  My message and my mission had been adopted by Dr. Love and the Avon Foundation and now the nation was hearing about something they’d not been told previously:  we can prevent a large portion of breast cancer and we should commit ourselves to doing so.  Ever since, Dr. Love has been a strong advocate for what I call the“Pure Cure”.  I’m glad she’s made prevention the focus of her message, and I’m pleased that she’s taken every opportunity on stage to market this gospel.  Like the apostle, Paul, Dr. Love is carrying this good news far and wide.  And we are all grateful for that.

Now, let me put forth another idea that I hope Dr. Love, Avon and, dare I say, Komen will support:  If we can prevent 30% of breast cancer using known and proven risk reduction strategies (e.g., don’t smoke, maintain ideal body weight, exercise moderately for 30 minutes four times a week, avoid hormone replacement therapy, and avoid oral contraceptives), then I believe we should spend that portion of our breast cancer research money attempting to do so.  I have blogged about this many times, and last October I shared this message with my fellow members on the Leadership Council of the Harvard School of Public Health.  I told the large group that had assembled in Cambridge for the annual meeting that after studying Komen’s funding pie chart (and others, including that of the federal government), I was convinced that we needed to portion out the grants differently – in such a way that prevention receives the money it needs and deserves.  When I shared this opinion with the Harvard crowd, one of the women running the program blew me a kiss.  I replied with a broad smile.

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.  And the time has come to put the Pure Cure into action.  I say, Direct at least 30% of the money we spend on breast cancer research on primary prevention of the disease.  (And I don’t mean early diagnosis via mammogram screening:  I meanprevention.)  If we follow this policy, we will be taking care of all women – those who have breast cancer and those who do not.

Like the Pure Cure, re-slicing the research pie so breast cancer prevention gets its fair share is an idea whose time has come.  And I’ll know my idea has ‘arrived’ when I once again begin hearing echoes … when my words become action in the form of money moving in a different direction.

For more information about the human breast cancer virus and the scientists who are working on this exciting research, please take a look at this documentary film I produced in 2010.  It was nominated “Best Film of the Year” by Rethink Breast Cancer.