Format: Download Video of Slides with Synchronized Audio

Presenter: David Zava, PhD

To review the medical literature and different methods used to assess the association of estrogen metabolism and breast cancer risk. Even though mortality caused by diseases of aging (e.g. heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis) is much greater than that of breast cancer, women’s greatest fear is the diagnosis of breast cancer. Research and clinical studies clearly show the benefit of lifestyle intervention in preventing primary breast cancer and secondary recurrence. At the cellular level the types of estrogen metabolites that form, more so than the level or type of estrogen present, predicts the extent of DNA damage and risk for developing breast cancer. Methods to monitor the types of estrogen metabolites, and therefore breast cancer risk, are now available through testing in urine.

Learning Objectives
-> Review the clinical and research history linking different estrogen metabolites to breast cancer
-> Discuss the types of estrogen metabolites that form in the body and why some are more dangerous than others
-> Describe other factors (hormones, nutrients) that increase and decrease good and bad estrogen