Breast cancer is a complex disease caused by multiple environmental and lifestyle factors interacting with genetic susceptibility across the life span. Therefore, environmental factors are of intense interest to both researchers and community members, including women with breast cancer. There is not adequate literature that addresses this issue comprehensively from epidemiological, experimental, and translational research perspective. This book is aiming to fill this gap by gathering chapters from the most recognized experts in the field of breast biology and cancer with special interests in environmental issues.

No Family History presents compelling evidence of environmental links to breast cancer, ranging from everyday cosmetics to industrial waste. Sabrina McCormick weaves the story of one survivor with no family history into a powerful exploration of the big business of breast cancer. As drugs, pink products, and corporate sponsorships generate enormous revenue to find a cure, a growing number of experts argue that we should instead increase focus on prevention—reducing environmental exposures that have contributed to the sharp increase of breast cancer rates. But the dollars continue to pour into the search for a cure, and the companies that profit, including some pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies, may in fact contribute to the environmental causes of breast cancer. No Family History shows how profits drive our public focus on the cure rather than prevention, and suggests new ways to reduce breast cancer rates in the future.

The Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine wanted to address the link between environmental factors and the development of cancer in light of recent advances in genomics. They asked what research tools are needed, how new scientific information can be applied in a timely manner to reduce the burden of cancer, and how this can be flexible enough to treat the individual.

Though overall cancer incidence and mortality have continued to decline in recent years, cancer continues to devastate the lives of far too many Americans. In 2009 alone, 1.5 million American men, women, and children were diagnosed with cancer, and 562,000 died from the disease. There is a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer. The Pres. Cancer Panel dedicated its 2008¿2009 activities to examining the impact of environmental factors on cancer risk. The Panel considered industrial, occupational, and agricultural exposures as well as exposures related to medical practice, military activities, modern lifestyles, and natural sources. This report presents the Panel¿s recommend. to mitigate or eliminate these barriers. Illus.

Some investigators have hypothesized that estrogens and other hormonally active agents found in the environment might be involved in breast cancer increases and sperm count declines in humans as well as deformities and reproductive problems seen in wildlife. This book looks in detail at the science behind the ominous prospect of "estrogen mimics" threatening health and well-being, from the level of ecosystems and populations to individual people and animals. The committee identifies research needs and offers specific recommendations to decision-makers. This authoritative volume: Critically evaluates the literature on hormonally active agents in the environment and identifies known and suspected toxicologic mechanisms and effects of fish, wildlife, and humans. Examines whether and how exposure to hormonally active agents occursâ€"in diet, in pharmaceuticals, from industrial releases into the environmentâ€"and why the debate centers on estrogens. Identifies significant uncertainties, limitations of knowledge, and weaknesses in the scientific literature. The book presents a wealth of information and investigates a wide range of examples across the spectrum of life that might be related to these agents.

Cancer occurs in specific places and spaces, each of which have identifiable geographic coordinates, characterized by unique natural, built and social characteristics, all of which contribute significantly to cancer across the spectrum from etiology through diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. In the first volume of this series, published in 2010, a single chapter was focused on these geographic influences. Since then, the field of geospatial studies of cancer prevention and control has exploded in approaches and applications. Accordingly, this volume focuses on what has now become a very specific research endeavor, Geospatial Factors Impacting Breast Cancer. The book provides important insights into this relatively new and rapidly developing field. It should be of value to all students of the Energy Balance & Cancer Series and a wide-ranging introduction to problems in cancer prevention and control for geographers, demographers and other researchers with a geospatial perspective. Moreover, it provides important information for all oncologists, endocrinologists, and behavioral modification professionals to better understand their patients in the context of their environment. It should also provide important considerations for physicians, scientists, public health professionals and disparity investigator planning clinical trials, community interventions and community planning.

Although cancer development and progression depend on stochastic mutational events, the tumor has to be seen in the context of the host environment, and unraveling the environmental factors that support solid tumors is at the root of cancer prevention and cure. This Special Issue, focused on the dynamic crosstalk that occurs between tumor cells and the surrounding microenvironment and also including the cancer cells that represent a reservoir of self-sustaining cells for tumor maintenance, adds new knowledge about tumor–host interactions that is useful for novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.