Did Angelina Jolie Make A Mistake By Acting On The 'Breast Cancer
Gene' Theory?
The 'prophylactic' removal of women's breasts due to BRCA1/BRCA2
status has become a disturbingly popular trend, and increasingly it is
being celebrated in the mainstream media and medical establishments as
a reasonable choice. But does the scientific evidence itself refute
this approach?
Angelina Jolie's recent announcement in a New York Times op-ed that
she had a 'prophylactic' double mastectomy due to her BRCA1/BRCA2
status has disturbing implications, some of which we covered late last
year in connection with Allyn Rose, the 24-year old Miss America
contestant who announced she would be undergoing a double mastectomy
to "prevent" breast cancer.
Beyond the fact that as high-profile celebrities their decisions will
affect millions of women's perception of the procedure, likely making
them more accepting of the concept, their decisions also reflect
profound misconceptions about gene-mediated disease risk embedded
deeply within popular consciousness, from which prevailing medical
opinion is hardly immune.
First, there is a common misconception about the role that the so-
called breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, play in
breast cancer disease risk and prognosis. BRCA mutations vary widely
by ethnicity and are exceedingly rare in the general population, which
is why, as NBCNews.com recently reported, "The U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force recommends that only women with a strong family
history even think about getting a BRCA genetic test –which is only 2
percent of U.S. women." But even in those in which a BRCA mutation is
identified, the genes, in and of themselves, do not alone make the
disease.
Despite the commonplace refusal of so-called 'evidence-based medicine'
to acknowledge the actual evidence of genetics, we moved into a Post-
Genomic era over a decade ago following the completion of first draft
of the entire human genome in 2000. At that moment, the central dogma
of molecular biology – that our DNA controls protein expression, and
therefore disease risk – was disproved. Our genome was found to
contain roughly 20,000 genetic instructions – not even enough to
account for the 100,000 proteins in the human body!
As a result, we must now accept that factors beyond the control of the
gene, known as epigenetic factors, and largely determined by a
combination of nutrition, psychospiritual states that feed back into
our physiology, lifestyle factors, and environmental exposures,
constitute as high as 95% of what determines any disease risk. In
fact, even the psychological trauma associated with being diagnosed
with cancer can drive malignancy via adrenaline-mediated multi-drug
resistance,[i] and according to a recent NEJM study, lead up to a 26-
fold increased risk of heart-related deaths in the seven days
following diagnosis.[ii]
Given this fact, Jolie's decision to have a bilateral mastectomy in
order to excise from her body the breast tissue that contains BRCA1/
BRCA2 genes which are known to interfere with the repair of radiation-
induced DNA damage, rather than focusing on reducing or eliminating
all future radiation exposure from her breasts, or incorporating
hundreds of nutritional components experimentally confirmed to protect
against radiation and associated genotoxic insults to the breast,
reflects a iron clad faith in the inevitability of gene-driven cancer
vis-à-vis a fundamentally powerless subject, versus trust in the
body's ability to prevent and heal all disease, assuming it has the
right conditions.
Another common misconception is that you either have, or don't have
the "BRACA genes," as if they were monolithic entities, ascertained
with the black and white certainty of a pregnancy test. It is a
little known fact that thousands of "mutations" in the BRCA1 and BRCA2
genes have already been identified and characterized on a molecular
level, adding much more complexity to the picture than the present
level of medical knowledge can claim to convert into compelling
statistical risk calculations and actionable treatment
recommendations.
These mutations are technically known as gene polymorphisms which are
naturally occurring variations of a gene present in more than 1% of
the populations. It will come to many as a surprise to learn that
some of these so-called "mutations" actually REDUCE the risk of breast
cancer. BRCA1 variation K1 183R is related inversely to cancer risk,
leading the authors of a review on the topic titled, "The case against
BRCA1 and 2 testing," to conclude: "It seems that some polymorphisms
may actually have a protective effect."[iii] Moreover, research exists
showing that BRCA2 mutation carriers and non-carriers have similar
breast cancer-specific rates of breast-cancer specific death,[iv] and
that although BRCA positive patients have more frequently negative
prognostic factors, their prognosis appears to be equal to or better
than in patients with normal, also known as wild-type, BRCA.[v]
Another concerning blind spot in the framing of Jolie's decision is
that approximately 70,000 breast cancers (31% of annual breast cancers
diagnoses) are misdiagnosed by the vast breast cancer 'awareness' and
treatment complex each year.[vi] These are not just so-called "zero
stage" breast cancers such as Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), which
arguably should be reclassified as non-cancerous normal variations in
breast morphology, but 50% are known as early-stage "invasive" breast
cancers [view NEJM study video analysis here].
How many of these women, having received a mammography-detected
diagnosis of breast cancer and then a follow up BRCA test, believed
that the gene must have therefore "caused" the "cancer"? The
popularization of this crude way of understanding natural, sometimes
self-limiting variations in breast morphology as cases of "breast
cancer" is itself a malignancy that should be prevented and treated
with healthy doses of the very 'evidence' that the so-called 'evidence-
based' medical system claims to possess as a differentiating factor
from other, more ancient, plant- and nutrition-based medical
traditions.
Last November, an article published in NEJM found that 1.3 million US
women were overdiagnosed and overtreated for so-called "breast cancer"
in the past 30 years. These were screen-detected abnormal breast
findings that would never have progressed to cause harm in the women
in which they were diagnosed. These women, while essentially
iatrogenic victims of medicine, being given standard treatment
options, including mastectomy, lumpectomy, radiation, chemotherapy,
were considered statistically as "survivors" whose lives were saved by
the medical establishment, and these cases further inflated the
statistics to make it appear that conventional treatment interventions
are far more effective than they actually are.
Given these facts, Jolie's decision conceals a dark side that she,
like millions of other American women, are completely unaware of. For
example, look at the soaring stock response of Myriad Genetics, the
patent-holders of the human genes BRCA1/BRCA2, soon after Jolie's
announcement in this Yahoo Finance article published today: Myriad
Genetics Shares Climb After Angelina Jolie Has Mastectomy.
The Utah-based company, contrary to popular opinion, owns patents on
your BRCA genes (men have them too). And not only that, as a recent
Slate article explains:
[Myriad Genetics] claims to own the rights to any test for the
presence of the two critical genes associated with breast cancer, and
it has ruthlessly enforced that right, though their test is inferior
to one that Yale University was willing to provide at much lower cost.
The consequences have been tragic: Thorough, affordable testing that
identifies high-risk patients saves lives. Blocking such testing costs
lives. Myriad is a true example of an American corporation for which
profit trumps all other values, including the value of human life
itself.
Given the fact that powerful, profit-driven corporations stand to reap
profound financial benefit from the propagation of an oversimplified
gene-driven theory of breast cancer susceptibility, we must be
cautious in jumping on the mainstream media and medical bandwagon by
viewing Jolie's increasingly popular decision uncritically. Consider
also that women who undergo these mastectomies often opt for breast
implants which themselves have been linked to cancer, as we discussed
in our article from last year, "Implanted: The Myth of the Cancer-Free
Breast Implant," and which only recently were linked to more
aggressive breast cancer, and lower breast cancer survival rates.
What we want is the truth when it comes to understanding breast cancer
risk, its natural history, and what preventive and therapeutic steps
should be employed to reduce its progression and associated
suffering. Unfortunately, however, the breast cancer industry's
influence stretches from academia to government, from KFC buckets of
fried chicken to Smith & Wesson's pink ribbon-branded fire arms. All
the more important to read between the lines, and remember that we
alone are responsible for educating ourselves, so that a truly
informed choice is made possible.
Please use our breast cancer health guide for direct access to the
peer-reviewed and published research on natural and integrative breast
health interventions: Health Guide: Breast Cancer
Resources
[i] GreenMedinfo.com, Stress Hormones Found To Make Cancer Resistant
To Treatment
[ii] GreenMedInfo.com, Research: Some Diagnoses Can Kill You Quicker
Than The Cancer
[iii] Cheryl Lin, Tina Sasaki, Aaron Strumwasser, Alden Harken. The
case against BRCA 1 and 2 testing. Surgery. 2011 Jun ;149(6):731-4.
PMID: 21621683
[iv] Mario Budroni, Rosaria Cesaraccio, Vincenzo Coviello, Ornelia
Sechi, Daniela Pirino, Antonio Cossu, Francesco Tanda, Marina Pisano,
Grazia Palomba, Giuseppe Palmieri. Role of BRCA2 mutation status on
overall survival among breast cancer patients from Sardinia. BMC
Cancer. 2009 ;9:62. Epub 2009 Feb 20. PMID: 19232099
[v] Andrea Veronesi, Clelia de Giacomi, Maria D Magri, Davide
Lombardi, Martina Zanetti, Cristina Scuderi, Riccardo Dolcetti,
Alessandra Viel, Diana Crivellari, Ettore Bidoli, Mauro Boiocchi.
Familial breast cancer: characteristics and outcome of BRCA 1-2
positive and negative cases. BMC Cancer. 2005 ;5:70. Epub 2005 Jul 4.
PMID: 15996267
[vi] New England Journal of Medicine, Effect of Three Decades of
Screening Mammography on Breast-Cancer Incidence
SOURCE:
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/did-angelina-jolie-make-mistake-acting-breast-cancer-gene-theory