I am not an advocate

Just noticed this at Google News is all.

Gene Mutations Boost Cancer Risk in Women:

Exercising and maintaining a healthful weight when young can delay the onset of breast cancer in women at very high risk of the disease, according to a study of women with a genetic mutation that gives them an 82 percent lifetime risk of developing the disease.

Researchers also found that women with mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene have a 23 percent to 54 percent risk of ovarian cancer, depending on which gene is affected.

The study, appearing Friday in the journal Science, showed that lifestyle during adolescence played a role in when these high-risk women developed breast cancer. The finding was consistent with earlier studies suggesting that among women in general, exercise and healthy weight early in life can reduce a woman's risk of developing breast cancer after menopause.

"The possibility that lifestyle changes such as increased exercise and weight control could modify the impact of genetic risk has very intriguing implications, not only for BRCA-related cancers but for other breast cancers as well," said Dr. Larry Norton, head of the division of solid tumor oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

In the new study, women who exercised actively when they were young — either dancing, or in team sports, or just walking a lot — and who maintained a healthful weight — that is, they were not obese — through the age of 21, were somewhat protected from breast cancer, said Mary-Claire King, first author of the study and a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Note that the headline (from some copyeditor scum) mentions the factor in the second paragraph of the story, rather than the (to me, more important) bit from the first.

There's also a wire story at Wired, Study: Mutations Give 82 Pct. Risk of Breast Cancer:

Jewish women with the most common genetic mutations known to cause breast cancer have more than an 80 percent chance of developing the disease in their lifetimes, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

[. . .] The BRCA genes in question, named for their role in breast cancer, help repair damaged DNA before it can make a cell turn cancerous. In people whose genetic code differs in certain ways -- those with the mutations -- the repair process goes wrong.

Breast cancer will affect nearly 250,000 women and men in the United States alone, killing 40,000 each year.

King said in the Ashkenazi Jewish population as a whole about 2.5 percent of young adults carry one of the mutations and 10 percent of Jewish breast cancer patients.

Among U.S. white women generally, 7 percent of breast cancer patients carry mutations of BRCA1 or BRCA2.

But the study shows that staying slimmer and exercising moderately can delay the disease.

Um, that's all well and good, but what about women of col--

Never mind.

You'll forgive me. I need to find a desk to stand on.

Update: Well, that didn't take long. Health Problems in African American Women: Breast Cancer:

Except for African Americans 20-24 years old, African American women are more likely than White women to get breast cancer before age 40. However, they are less likely than White women to get breast cancer after age 40.

[. . .] African American women are more likely than White women to die from breast cancer. Researchers are trying to find out why this happens. Some reasons may be that tumors are found at a later (more advanced) stage so there are less treatment options, or patients don't follow-up after getting abnormal test results. Other reasons might include being overweight or not being able to get a mammography.

No, that's not helping. . .

African American Women and Breast Cancer:

The breast cancer mortality rate for African American women is higher than for White women and Latinos. In any one year, 31 out of every 100,000 African American women die of breast cancer. In comparison, 27 out of every 100,000 White women, and 15 out of every 100,000 Latinos die of breast cancer.

Between 1989 and 1992 there was approximately a 5% decrease in mortality rates for White women with breast cancer, but approximately a 2% increase for African American women.

And neither is that. Nope, I'm no good for this. Now I just really, really want to hurt somebody. . .

Update 10/24: While we're not on the subject, there's an entry at Boing Boing about a Petition to stop drive-thru mastectomies:

On September 25, 2003, Lifetime Television delivered more than 5 million petition signatures to Capitol Hill, urging Congress to ban "drive-through" mastectomies — the practice in which women are forced out of the hospital sometimes only hours after breast cancer surgery. Sign our petition now to help end drive-through mastectomies once and for all.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) introduced bipartisan legislation that mirrors the House bill sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) which would end this horrific practice. The petitions were collected by Lifetimetv.com as part of Lifetime's campaign against this practice with DeLauro, Landrieu, the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO), physicians, advocates and survivors across the nation.

Lifetime Television, NABCO, Rep. DeLauro and Connecticut physician Kristen Zarfos, M.D., have been fighting for this type of access to quality care for all women since 1996. The legislation would require insurance companies to cover a 48-hour minimum stay for mastectomy patients and a 24-hour stay for a woman undergoing a lymph node dissection. The legislation ensures that a doctor and a patient will make a decision together about staying at a hospital after a mastectomy.

Just "signed" it myself.

Thanks to Robert for mentioning this.