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A Note from the President, Dr. Angela Lanfranchi

During October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, women will be told that they have a one in seven chance of developing breast cancer. The truth is that number is statistically derived, the "cumulative life time risk of breast cancer," and that if a woman has no risk factors for breast cancer, her real risk is 3.3%.

Unfortunately, there are very few women in this country with no risk factors. Despite being told by large cancer organizations that "70% of breast cancer patients have no identifiable risk factors," and that we need to raise money for a cure, the truth is we really know those factors which cause the vast majority of breast cancer. How many women know that oral contraceptives are considered group I carcinogens by an agency of the World Health Organization? They are in the same group as tobacco for lung cancer, and asbestos for mesothelioma. Seventy five percent of women in this country have used these known carcinogens for birth control, despite safer, more natural methods that are readily available to them. When women become aware of this information, they will most likely act in the same way as they did in 2002, when they learned hormone replacement therapy increased breast cancer risk. That year 15 million women abruptly stopped taking hormone replacement therapy. By 2007, reports were published that breast cancer incidence had decreased 11% in post-menopausal women with estrogen receptor breast cancers. Imagine what will happen when millions of young women learn that oral contraceptives increase their breast cancer risk.