Estrogen and Breast Cancer

Estrogen is an essential hormone connected with proper reproductive functioning and health. Its presence is necessary for the healthy development of the breast, where it acts as a chemical messenger that triggers breast cell division. Estrogen controls menstrual cycles, while also helping to strengthen the bones and the heart.

In normal circumstances, estrogen performs a necessary and vital role. However, when breast cancer cells appear, estrogen can have a pernicious and destructive effect. About two-thirds of breast cancer tumors have estrogen receptors, which can bind to estrogen and use it in exactly the same way it is used by healthy breast cells, to stimulate and encourage cell division. In this case, however, this helps the cancerous tumor to grow larger, converting a process that was once healthy into something pathological and dangerous.

Complicating the issue further is that there appears to be some kind of cause and effect relationship between exposure to estrogen and the development of breast cancer. In other words, the presence of estrogen in abundance in a woman’s body is not just advantageous to cancer cells; it appears to be involved somehow in their manifestation. One possibility is that because estrogen encourages cell division through its absorption into the cell nucleus where genetic materials lie, increases in this activity may create more chances for mutation or copying errors that alter DNA cumulatively, until cells go pathological and become cancerous.

At that point, estrogen-positive cancers can then use estrogen for their own benefit. For treatment, hormone-blocking drugs are used to keep estrogen-receptors from taking in more estrogen, and in some instances the ovaries are removed to stop estrogen at the source. It was discovered in the past that when women had their ovaries surgically extracted at a young age, their incidence of breast cancer was very low. This observation helped establish the connection between estrogen and the development of breast cancer.

Reducing Estrogen Exposure
The cancer-causing effects of estrogen exposure are cumulative. The more estrogen that circulates in a woman’s body throughout her lifetime, the more likely that cancerous cells or tumors of the estrogen-receptor variety will appear. Estrogen levels in the body are affected by a number of factors, and it is possible for a woman to take a series of steps to reduce her lifetime exposure.

The type of diet consumed has a definite influence on the body’s supply of estrogen. Even though it is produced by the ovaries, fats also contain estrogen, and in postmenopausal women they are the primary source. Therefore, diets should be kept high in fiber and low in fat, and this may be especially important for older women who get breast cancer more frequently even after the ovaries cease their estrogen production. Obesity in general is a risk factor for breast cancer, so exercise should be combined with dietary changes to reduce not just fat intake but also fat storage.

Dietary estrogens should not be avoided altogether, however. There are plant-based estrogens called phytoestrogens, commonly found in various fruits, vegetables and whole grains, which are actually helpful in reducing the deleterious effects of internally produced estrogens. These estrogens are weaker than those produced by the body, and when they bind with hormone-receptors in the breast they do not stimulate breast cell division with anywhere near as much fervor. When the body has enough of these estrogens available, it can cut off the absorption of the more vigorous naturally produced variety.