Nearly 1,000 Chemicals That Promote Breast Cancer Found in Daily Consumer Products [Study]

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States. Researchers have learned that chemicals that can cause the disease are everywhere, from household supplies to items in the workplace.

Breast Cancer-Causing Chemicals Found in Consumer Products

In a new study, Jennifer Kay, a research scientist at Silent Spring Institute, and her colleagues looked through several foreign and US government databases to find substances linked to animal mammary cancers.

According to Kay, breast cancer is a hormonal disease, and it's alarming due to the wide range of chemicals that might change progesterone and estrogen levels. To create preventative plans and lower the illness burden, she believed that we needed new instruments to pinpoint environmental exposures causing this trend.

They then looked at information from the US EPA's Toxicity Forecaster tool to find substances that change hormone levels in the body and may contribute to breast cancer. The researchers specifically searched for substances demonstrated to activate the body's estrogen receptors and induce cells to overproduce progesterone and estrogen.

The group found 921 compounds that may contribute to the occurrence of breast cancer. Of these, 829, or 90%, are frequently found in workplaces, food, beverages, pesticides, consumer goods, and other environments.

"This new study provides a roadmap for regulators and manufacturers to quickly flag chemicals that could contribute to breast cancer in order to prevent their use in consumer products and find safer alternatives," per Kay.

What Is Breast Cancer?

Breast cancer is a disease in which cells in the breast grow out of control. There are different kinds of breast cancer. The kind of breast cancer depends on which cells in the breast turn into cancer.

Most breast cancers begin in the ducts or lobules. Breast cancer can spread outside the breast through blood vessels and lymph vessels. When breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it is said to have metastasized.

The most common types of breast cancer are the following:

Invasive ductal carcinoma. The cancer cells start in the ducts and spread to other areas of the breast tissue as they mature. Moreover, invasive cancer cells can metastasize or spread to different bodily regions.

Invasive lobular carcinoma. Cancer cells start in the lobules and subsequently migrate to neighboring breast tissues from the lobules. It is also possible for these invasive cancer cells to spread to different body areas.

Meanwhile, researchers found a potential solution for the aggressive form of breast cancer called triple-negative breast cancer. The possible treatment comes in the form of a vaccine.

During clinical trials, the innovative treatment was administered in three doses. Patients' T T-cell immune responses were successfully elicited by it, indicating that it might be useful in the battle against breast cancer. Sixteen volunteers who had previously undergone successful therapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) participated in the test. After using the vaccine, clinical trial participants did not report experiencing any serious side effects.

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