Posted on 10/21/2010 4:14:47 PM PDT by wagglebee
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- As breast cancer awareness month winds down, one leading breast cancer surgeon and professor has written a full explanation of one of the risks women need to keep in mind when talking with friends and family about the deadly disease -- abortion.
Dr. Angela Lanfranchi is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.
She is a surgeon who, as the co-director of the Sanofi-aventis Breast Care Program at the Steeplechase Cancer Center, has treated countless women facing a breast cancer diagnosis. Lanfranchi was named a 2010 Castle Connolly NY Metro Area “Top Doc” in breast surgery.
In an article she wrote for the medical journal Linacre Quarterly, Lanfranchi talks about why abortion presents women problems and increases their breast cancer risk:
A growing amount of evidence from quality studies suggests that induced abortion, but not spontaneous abortion or miscarriage, increases risk of breast cancer.
Of course, induced abortion is not the only risk factor for breast cancer. Most women diagnosed with breast cancer have never had an abortion. Most women who have had an induced abortion will not get breast cancer. Like a family history of breast cancer, which is involved in about 15 percent of all breast cancer cases, induced abortion is just another risk factor.
Cigarette smoke is a carcinogen. While only 15% of cigarette smokers get lung cancer, the risk has been well acknowledged. In comparison, induced abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer is somehow not as widely publicized.
Induced abortion boosts breast cancer risk because it stops the normal physiological changes in the breast that occur during a full term pregnancy and that lower a mother’s breast cancer risk. A woman who has a full term pregnancy at 20 has a 90% lower risk of breast cancer than a woman who waits until age 30.
Breast tissue after puberty and before a term pregnancy is immature and cancer-vulnerable. Seventy five percent of this tissue is Type 1 lobules where ductal cancers start and 25 percent is Type 2 lobules where lobular cancers start. Ductal cancers account for 85% of all breast cancers while lobular cancers account for 12-15% of breast cancers.
As soon as a woman conceives, the embryo secretes human chorionic gonadotrophin or hCG, the hormone we check for in pregnancy tests.
HCG causes the mother’s ovaries to increase the levels of estrogen and progesterone in her body resulting in a doubling of the amount of breast tissue she has; in effect, she then has more Type 1 and 2 lobules where cancers start.
After mid pregnancy at 20 weeks, the fetus/placenta makes hPL, another hormone that starts maturing her breast tissue so that it can make milk. It is only after 32 weeks that she has made enough of the mature Type 4 lobules that are cancer resistant so that she lowers her risk of breast cancer.
Induced abortion before 32 weeks leaves the mother’s breast with more vulnerable tissue for cancer to start. It is also why any premature birth before 32 weeks, not just induced abortion, increases or doubles breast cancer risk.
By the end of her pregnancy, 85% of her breast tissue is cancer resistant. Each pregnancy thereafter decreases her risk a further 10%.
Spontaneous abortions in the first trimester on the other hand don't increase breast cancer risk because there is something wrong with the embryo, so hCG levels are low. Another possibility is that something is wrong with the mother’s ovaries and the estrogen and progesterone levels are low. When those hormones are low, the mother’s breasts do not grow and change.
A woman can use this information to make an informed decision about her pregnancy. If she chooses to abort her pregnancy for whatever reason, she should start breast screening about 8-10 years later so that if she does develop a cancer, it can be found early and treated early for a better outcome.
If she doesn't have the resources to raise a child or is not ready to be a mother, there are millions of couples waiting to adopt any child, even one with disabilities.
Women need to understand their own bodies so that they can make the best decision for themselves.
It's all about the agenda.
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Is anybody about fed up with the Susan Komen solicitation for money when one considers that they donated $7.5 million to Planned Predators in 2009? Huh? I politely tell them to leave me alone and am surprised at how they react when I tell them about their money being used by these bloody people.
I’ve always wondered why so many Hollywood women celebs have had breast cancers. Perhaps many of them have had induced abortions to maintain their careers and each time they engage in the abortion procedure, they increase their risk for breast cancer.
Uber-liberal Marin County, Calif. has the highest rate of breast cancer in the USA. I used to think it was due to the liberal leanings towards veganism and overconsumption of soy but I wonder if it's due to the fact they're more likely to kill their own babies in the womb for convenience.
At various times and in various ways, the very things that lower a woman’s risk have been attacked. These include starting childbearing in the early 20s, having several children, and breastfeeding (the longer the better). As a first-time mom at age 21 in the early 1970s, I was avant garde by insisting on breastfeeding my child. Couldn’t have succeeded without La Leche League and a supportive husband. It had been out of vogue since the 1950s and then became chic again in the 1970s and 1980s. My point is that many of these risk-lowering practices are not encouraged these days by the culture and social mores.
I have heard Dr. LanFranchi speak on this topic. She is very knowledgeable and credible, and clearly states the facts in a way that anyone can understand. Refreshing!
thanks for the ping, i’ve met her before and no matter how many times the abc link is posted here on the FR or presented at a conference, you will still find BC survivors who misunderstand the rationale behind the link and they will still help out the Komen Foundation and participate in the race for the cure...I just don’t get it...
BTTT!
What do you suppose the reaction would be if the American Lung Association was giving money to a anti-teen campaign that was owned by Philip Morris?
My friend recently went through a bout with breast cancer. The doc told her that soy makes the breast tissue much denser, therefore more difficult to spot early cancers. I have heard it, as well, implicated in breast cancer.
Plus, it’s gross.
The Israeli Health Ministry and Cornelly University warn women not to eat soy more than a few times a week because unfermented soy (like you find in soy protein isolates, soy milk, etc.) INCREASES the risk of breast cancer.
The only soy products I eat are fermented soy such as miso,doenjang, soy sauce, tempeh, etc.
As a former soy eater and now a hyperthyroid survivor, I'd stay away from soy if you still have a healthy thyroid.
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