Evergrey
10-20-2010, 07:01 PM
OSU everyone,
Today I'm going to attempt to tackle a subject that I believe has a lot of misinformation flying around about it. This isn't a study, and it's not a thesis. I don't have a ton of solid sources to cite. I'll get that out of the way right now.
Does blunt trauma cause breast cancer?
Many people will automatically tell you "yes, they found out that it does!"
They?
Let's take a look at who "they" were. The true, original source of this "common knowledge" appears to come from the British Health Ministry... circa 1910.* At that time, 500 cases of malignant breast cancer were studied, and they found that in a majority of the cases, there was some incident of blunt trauma beforehand.
The thing is, blunt trauma can cause a painful lump that might feel like it could be breast cancer. This leads the woman in question to go get a breast exam... at which time, if she has breast cancer, it is discovered. She might not have gotten an exam otherwise, and it would have gone undetected. However, this does not indicate causality.
I believe there may have been a more recent study that wanted to connect tissue necrosis to breast cancer... I remember also hearing that this theory was later refuted by more recent studies. I can't seem to find a source for either study to cite. The media can pick up on some pretty old information and half-truths, report on it without actually comprehending the subject matter, and turn it into "common knowledge." Look at the study by the World Health Organization on secondhand smoke- a reporter or two didn't really understand the science of the statistics, and reported that second hand smoke was found to have no effect, or even found to protect AGAINST lung cancer after long-term exposure. The WHO issued a press release that this was not, in fact, true and their findings were that second hand smoke WAS damaging, but at that point it was "common knowledge" and nobody really paid attention to it.**
I spoke with my physician around 6 months ago about blunt force trauma to the breast, and it's link to cancer. He told me that there was not much in the way of evidence that an actual link existed. I asked him if I needed to avoid blunt trauma to the breast, and he told me that I did not. He had been keeping up with the latest medical journals and research.
I have yet to find evidence, in my searches, of any proof that trauma to the breast causes cancer. Generally the result of blunt trauma to the breast seems to be as follows:
1. Nothing.
2. A lumpy mass forms in reaction to the trauma, which may be misdiagnosed as cancer in an initial examination, but is later found to be benign,
or
3. A lumpy mass forms in reaction to the trauma, which leads to the patient getting an exam, which leads to (often early) detection of breast cancer, the cause of which is unrelated to the blunt trauma.
In conclusion, I'll leave you with a few thoughts:
# There does not appear to be conclusive evidence that blunt trauma causes breast cancer. Nothing readily available online- only "word-of-mouth common knowledge."
# It's quite difficult to cause tissue necrosis with a strike. It is possible, but highly improbable. Full contact fighters, feel free to weigh in on this- how often do you suffer from tissue necrosis due to being struck in a fight?
# Men also have breast tissue. Men also get breast cancer. Men have been striking one another in said breast tissue for as long as there have been men. I have seen and heard nothing about breast cancer in men being caused by blunt trauma.
# Go ahead and get on google. Yes, search results can be unreliable. However, one might note that submitting "blunt trauma causes breast cancer" pops up with a slew of pages where someone asks if it does, and someone answers with "no, it does not."
# Major medical information sites, such as mayo clinic, do not list blunt trauma as a cause or a risk factor in developing breast cancer.***
Please, give me your thoughts!
(I know it hurts like hell to get punched in the breast, and that's one reason why people prefer to avoid it. Not talking about that! I don't particularly enjoy the thought of getting punched really hard in the breast either, haha!)
* Advanced therapy of breast disease By S. Eva Singletary, Geoffrey L. Robb, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, 2004
**http://www.who.int/en/ (It's on there somewhere, read it a few months ago. Heh.)
*** http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-cancer/DS00328/DSECTION=risk-factors, http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/guide/what-causes-breast-cancer
Today I'm going to attempt to tackle a subject that I believe has a lot of misinformation flying around about it. This isn't a study, and it's not a thesis. I don't have a ton of solid sources to cite. I'll get that out of the way right now.
Does blunt trauma cause breast cancer?
Many people will automatically tell you "yes, they found out that it does!"
They?
Let's take a look at who "they" were. The true, original source of this "common knowledge" appears to come from the British Health Ministry... circa 1910.* At that time, 500 cases of malignant breast cancer were studied, and they found that in a majority of the cases, there was some incident of blunt trauma beforehand.
The thing is, blunt trauma can cause a painful lump that might feel like it could be breast cancer. This leads the woman in question to go get a breast exam... at which time, if she has breast cancer, it is discovered. She might not have gotten an exam otherwise, and it would have gone undetected. However, this does not indicate causality.
I believe there may have been a more recent study that wanted to connect tissue necrosis to breast cancer... I remember also hearing that this theory was later refuted by more recent studies. I can't seem to find a source for either study to cite. The media can pick up on some pretty old information and half-truths, report on it without actually comprehending the subject matter, and turn it into "common knowledge." Look at the study by the World Health Organization on secondhand smoke- a reporter or two didn't really understand the science of the statistics, and reported that second hand smoke was found to have no effect, or even found to protect AGAINST lung cancer after long-term exposure. The WHO issued a press release that this was not, in fact, true and their findings were that second hand smoke WAS damaging, but at that point it was "common knowledge" and nobody really paid attention to it.**
I spoke with my physician around 6 months ago about blunt force trauma to the breast, and it's link to cancer. He told me that there was not much in the way of evidence that an actual link existed. I asked him if I needed to avoid blunt trauma to the breast, and he told me that I did not. He had been keeping up with the latest medical journals and research.
I have yet to find evidence, in my searches, of any proof that trauma to the breast causes cancer. Generally the result of blunt trauma to the breast seems to be as follows:
1. Nothing.
2. A lumpy mass forms in reaction to the trauma, which may be misdiagnosed as cancer in an initial examination, but is later found to be benign,
or
3. A lumpy mass forms in reaction to the trauma, which leads to the patient getting an exam, which leads to (often early) detection of breast cancer, the cause of which is unrelated to the blunt trauma.
In conclusion, I'll leave you with a few thoughts:
# There does not appear to be conclusive evidence that blunt trauma causes breast cancer. Nothing readily available online- only "word-of-mouth common knowledge."
# It's quite difficult to cause tissue necrosis with a strike. It is possible, but highly improbable. Full contact fighters, feel free to weigh in on this- how often do you suffer from tissue necrosis due to being struck in a fight?
# Men also have breast tissue. Men also get breast cancer. Men have been striking one another in said breast tissue for as long as there have been men. I have seen and heard nothing about breast cancer in men being caused by blunt trauma.
# Go ahead and get on google. Yes, search results can be unreliable. However, one might note that submitting "blunt trauma causes breast cancer" pops up with a slew of pages where someone asks if it does, and someone answers with "no, it does not."
# Major medical information sites, such as mayo clinic, do not list blunt trauma as a cause or a risk factor in developing breast cancer.***
Please, give me your thoughts!
(I know it hurts like hell to get punched in the breast, and that's one reason why people prefer to avoid it. Not talking about that! I don't particularly enjoy the thought of getting punched really hard in the breast either, haha!)
* Advanced therapy of breast disease By S. Eva Singletary, Geoffrey L. Robb, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, 2004
**http://www.who.int/en/ (It's on there somewhere, read it a few months ago. Heh.)
*** http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-cancer/DS00328/DSECTION=risk-factors, http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/guide/what-causes-breast-cancer