News

Women Can Help Find Causes of Cancer

“The Milk Study: Using Breast Milk to Screen for Breast Cancer and Assess Breast-Cancer Risk,” led by UMass Amherst researchers Kathleen Arcaro (veterinary and animal sciences) and Doug Anderton (sociology), director of the Social and Demographic Research Institute and associate dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is among the Love/Avon Army of Women’s current projects to fight breast cancer.

The Army of Women project was launched when the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation for Women, a global leader in breast cancer research, joined together. Their revolutionary initiative aims to recruit one million healthy women of every age and ethnicity, including breast cancer survivors and women at high-risk for the disease, to partner with breast cancer researchers and directly participate in the research that will eradicate breast cancer once and for all. They also are challenging the scientific community to expand its current focus to include breast cancer prevention research conducted on healthy women.

A US News and World Report article on October 7, 2009 stated, “Certainly a lot of progress has been made in the fight against breast cancer: more effective treatments, less disfiguring surgery, and genetic testing and high-tech imaging to catch it earlier. Yet, little is known about what actually triggers the disease. In fact, 70 percent of breast cancers have no explainable cause. Now women can join the effort to help researchers identify what leads to breast cancer—with the ultimate goal of preventing it. All you need to do is fill out a free online form to join the Army of Women. (It took me five minutes.) You’ll then receive twice-monthly E-mails telling you about research studies looking for participants.”

You can join Arcaro and Anderton’s Milk Study if you are currently nursing/breast-feeding a baby and you are either going to have a breast biopsy in the near future or you have had a breast biopsy in the past. Click here to learn more about the study and/or to join. Click here to read more about Doug Anderton and his work.

October 16, 2009