I'm involved with a wonderful project based at the University of Massachusetts which will provide a tool health care providers can use to non-invasively detect breast cancer in nursing mothers. It may even help nursing mothers assess future risk. More on that soon, I promise.
The lead researcher in this effort, Dr. Kathleen Arcaro, has visited a support group I run several times to collect breastmilk samples for her research on breastfeeding and breast cancer. A few days ago she emailed me a link to a new effort to help generate a huge pool of women whom researchers can draw from in their research.
It's called the Love/Avon Army of Women. It's a joint project between renowned breast cancer specialist Dr. Susan Love, and the Avon Foundation. The goal is to recruit 1 million women to be part of research studies that will help scientists understand what causes breast cancer and how to prevent it.
While great strides have been made in improving survival rates and treatment, the organizers say that little is known about the causes and prevention of breast cancer. This project aims to shift researchers focus from finding breast cancer early to preventing it from occurring in the first place.
The project hasn't officially launched, but you can sign up now. I did. More information on the campaign is here (pdf).
And here are a few past posts on the topic of breastfeeding and breast cancer:
- Why does breastfeeding reduce our breast cancer risk?
- Breastfeeding after breast cancer: One mother's story.
- How much does breastfeeding reduce the risk of disease? (including breast cancer)
- Breastfeeding provides protection from breast cancer in "older" (sigh) mothers, too.
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