Publications

To order printed copies, please, click here. All publications are free of charge.

To read a 2-page summary of these publications click here.

To visit these publications, please, choose a title:

• Breast cancer and exposure to hormonally active chemicals: An appraisal of the scientific evidence
• Factors influencing the risk of breast cancer – established and emerging
• Breast Cancer: Preventing the preventable
• Portfolio of papers that highlight how chemical exposures may be implicated in breast cancer

“Breast cancer and exposure to hormonally active chemicals: An appraisal of the scientific evidence”

The report provides a review of the scientific evidence that certain chemicals may be implicated in breast cancer, and focuses on the role of hormone disrupting chemicals. Particular reference is made to early life and multiple chemical exposures. Written by Professor Andreas Kortenkamp, Head of the Centre for Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, University of London, UK, the report has been peer reviewed by Professor Jan Ake Gustafsson (whose team discovered the oestrogen receptor-beta), Dr Julia Brody from the Silent Spring Institute, USA, and Prof Alastair M Thompson, Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Dundee.

The fully referenced report identifies important areas for further discussion not only within the breast cancer and wider medical community but also within that of chemicals regulation.

The report is available for downloading as a PDF document in:

English

“Factors influencing the risk of breast cancer – established and emerging”

This briefing summarizes the key information on all the risk factors and breast cancer with particular focus on the potential role of certain chemicals in the environment. It is written in a language that is accessible to non-scientists and is suitable for the general public and breast cancer suffers.

The briefing is available for downloading as a PDF document in several languages:

This briefing will also be available in Polish and Czech very soon.

“Breast Cancer: Preventing the preventable”

This leaflet briefly describes the evidence that hormonally active chemicals may be implicated in breast cancer. Written for sufferers and a wide public audience, the leaflet highlights the risk factors for breast cancer, the views of several scientific groups concerning the role of chemicals, and what people can do to minimize exposure. It also briefly describes the policy actions needed in order to reduce exposures to hormonally active chemicals.

The leaflet is available for downloading as a PDF document in several languages:

This leaflet will also be available in Polish very soon.

Portfolio of papers that highlight how chemical exposures may be implicated in breast cancer

The Portfolio is a selection of peer-reviewed and published papers presenting the scientific case for chemical exposures playing a role in breast cancer. The portfolio includes two principal strands of compelling research. Firstly, large ongoing epidemiological studies and other epidemiological studies suggesting an association between certain chemical exposures and breast cancer that have not been contradicted by other studies. Secondly, papers illustrating demonstrable changes in mammary tissue due to low level in-utero exposures to certain chemicals in experimental animals. These papers will help take forward the discussion on the mechanism of action. The purpose of the portfolio is to provide a useful resource for clinicians, scientists, breast cancer charities, and other health professionals.

The portfolio has been compiled by Gwynne Lyons of CHEM Trust for HEAL and has been reviewed by several international experts in the field. If in your opinion, other studies should be included, please contact Gwynne Lyons at gwynne.lyons@chemtrust.org.uk.

The list of abstracts and full articles included in this portfolio:

• Brody J.G., Moysich K.B., Humblet O., Attfield K.R., Beehler G.P., Rudel R.A .(2007). Environmental Pollutants and Breast Cancer, Cancer: Supplement: Environmental Factors in Breast Cancer, Volume 109(12): 2667 – 2711
  

• Brophy J.T., Keith M.M., Gorey K.M., Luginaah I., Laukkanen E., Hellyer D., Reinhartz A., Watterson A,. Abu-Zahra H., Maticka-Tyndale E., Schneider K., Beck M., Gilbertson M. (2006). Occupation and breast cancer: a Canadian case-control study, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1076:765-77.
  

• Cassidy R.A., Natarajan S., Vaughan G.M. (2005). The link between the insecticide heptachlor epoxide, estradiol, and breast cancer, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 90(1):55-64.
  

• Cohn B.A., Wolff M.S., Cirillo P.M., Sholtz R.I. (2007). DDT and breast cancer in young women: new data on the significance of age at exposure, Environmental Health Perspectives: Volume 115(10): 1406 - 1414
  

• Darbre P.D. (2006). Environmental oestrogens, cosmetics and breast cancer, Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 20(1): 121 - 143.
  

• Engel L.S., Hill D.A., Hoppin J.A., Lubin J.H., Lynch C.F., Pierce J., Samanic C., Sandler D.P., Blair A., Alavanja M.C. (2005). Pesticide use and breast cancer risk among farmers’ wives in the agricultural health study, American Journal of Epidemiology, 161(2): 121 - 135.
  

• Fenton S.E. (2006). Endocrine-disrupting compounds and mammary gland development: early exposure and later life consequences, Endocrinology, 147(6 Suppl): S18 - 24.
  

• Fowler P.A., Gordon K.L., Throw C.A., Cash P., Miller D., Lea R.G., Rhind S.M. (2007). Dietary sewage sludge exposure disrupts ewe mammogenesis, Poster at Fertility conference. Open the link and go to the page number 75 (Poster: P55).
  

• Ibarluzea J.M., Fernández M.F., Santa-Marina L., Olea-Serrano M.F., Rivas A.M., Aurrekoetxea J.J., Expósito J., Lorenzo M., Torné P., Villalobos M., Pedraza V., Sasco A.J., Olea N. (2004). Breast cancer risk and the combined effect of environmental estrogens, Cancer Causes Control, 15(6): 591 - 600.
  

• Jenkins S., Rowell C., Wang J., Lamartiniere C.A. (2007). Prenatal TCDD exposure predisposes for mammary cancer in rats, Reproductive Toxicology, Volume 23 (3): 391 – 396
  

• Kalantzi O., Hewitt R., Ford K., Alcock R., Thomas G., Morris J., Hewer A., Phillips D.H., Jones K. and Martin F.L. (2004) Inter-individual Differences in the Ablity of Human Milk-Fat Extracts To Enhance the Genotoxic Potential of the Procarcinogen Benzo[a]pyrene in MCF-7 Breast Cells (Abstract), Environmental Science and Technology, Volume 38(13): 3614 - 3622.
  

• Kortenkamp A. (2005). Breast cancer, oestrogens and environmental pollutants: a re-evaluation from a mixture perspective, International Journal of Andrology, 29(1):193-8
  

• Million Women Study Collaborators (2003). Breast cancer and hormone-replacement therapy in the Million Women Study, Lancet. 9; 362(9382): 419 - 427. (Including erratum in: Lancet. 2003 Oct 4; 362(9390): 1160).
  

• Muñoz-de-Toro M., Markey C.M., Wadia P.R., Luque E.H., Rubin B.S., Sonnenschein C., Soto A.M. (2005). Perinatal exposure to bisphenol-A alters peripubertal mammary gland development in mice, Endocrinology, 146(9): 4138 - 4147.
  

• Murray T.J., Maffini M.V., Ucci A.A., Sonnenschein C., Soto A.M. (2007). Induction of mammary gland ductal hyperplasias and carcinoma in situ following fetal bisphenol A exposure, Reproductive Toxicology, 23(3): 383 - 390.
  

• Palmer J.R., Wise L.A., Hatch E.E., Troisi R., Titus-Ernstoff L., Strohsnitter W., Kaufman R., Herbst A.L., Noller K.L., Hyer M., Hoover R.N. (2006). Prenatal diethylstilbestrol exposure and risk of breast cancer, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 15(8): 1509 - 1514.
  

• Rudel R.A., Attfield K.R., Schifano J.N., Brody J.G. (2007). Chemicals causing mammary gland tumors in animals signal new directions for epidemiology, chemicals testing, and risk assessment for breast cancer prevention, Cancer: Supplement: Environmental Factors in Breast Cancer, Volume 109(12): 2635 - 2666
  

• Sasco A.J., Kaaks R., Little R.E. (2003). Breast cancer: occurrence, risk factors and hormone metabolism, Expert Review Anticancer Therapy, 3(4): 546 - 562.
  

• Snedeker S.M. (2006). Chemical exposures in the workplace: effect on breast cancer risk among women. AAOHN J. 54(6):270-9.
  

• Milena Durando, Laura Kass, Julio Piva, Carlos Sonnenschein, Ana M. Soto, Enrique H. Luque and Mónica Muñoz-de-Toro1 (2007). Prenatal Bisphenol A Exposure Induces Preneoplastic Lesions in the Mammary Gland in Wistar Rats, Environmental Health Perspectives: Volume 115 (1): 80 - 86