Cancer club

February 8, 2010





Today I received some news that a former colleague of mine had died of cancer. I used to work with her at the YMCA for a number of years. From what I knew of her, this was her second bout of cancer and that she had been battling it for some time. In addition, a friend has informed me that doctors have found a tumour that will need to be operated on in early March.

In these diagnoses, it has reminded me of a departed friend who's "live fully" approach to life with cancer is best illustrated by her three rules of cancer club.
Rule #1: Have a holiday
Rule #2: Buy some shoes
Rule #3: Have a party

This positive outlook makes me smile each time I think of it, however doesn't detract from the my fear that people I know, young people, are being diagnosed with this disease. I had a conversation with my roommate about why the instances of cancer have increased in the last years. We discussed the hormones and preservatives in food, global warming and other potential causes. However, I suggested, that perhaps it isn't an increase in the number of people who have cancer, but rather having the technology to detect it early and the advanced techniques to fight it that make it seem more prevalent. The difficulty is that a direct cause of cancer has not been identified - yet there are things that are known to increase risk of aquiring cancer, such as smoking and sun exposure. Today's question is: what are some of the cancer myths?


A: Cancer is caused by an abnormal growth of cells within the body. These masses, known as tumours, can spread throughout the body through the bloodstream or lymphatic system. The term benign refers to a mass that is non-cancerous and will not spread, where as malignant masses may invade surrounding cells and have the potential to spread to other places in the body.

There are a number of myths that exist, especially on the internet, that have arisen relating to potential causes of cancer.

1) Antiperspirants cause breast cancer
The myth states:
The human body has a few areas that it uses to purge toxins; behind the knees, behind the ears, groin area, and armpits. The toxins are purged in the form of perspiration.

Antiperspirant, as the name clearly indicates, prevents you from perspiring, thereby inhibiting the body from purging toxins from below the armpits. These toxins do not just magically disappear. Instead, the body deposits them in the lymph nodes below the arms since it cannot sweat them out.

This causes a high concentration of toxins and leads to cell mutations: a.k.a. CANCER.
Nearly all breast cancer tumours occur in the upper outside quadrant of the breast area. This is precisely where the lymph nodes are located.

Additionally, men are less likely (but not completely exempt) to develop breast cancer prompted by antiperspirant usage because most of the antiperspirant product is caught in their hair and is not directly applied to the skin. Women who apply antiperspirant right after shaving increase the risk further because shaving causes almost imperceptible nicks in the skin which give the chemicals entrance into the body from the armpit area.


There are conflicting views of this myth, but the fact remains that a clear cause of breast cancer has yet to be determined. A study conducted in 2002 by Dana Mirik, an epidemiologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has shown no correlation between antiperspirant usage, shaving and breast cancer.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, only 50% of all breast cancers are in the upper outside quadrant of the breast. Additionally, the quadrants of the breast are not of equal size because the nipple is not the true centre of the breast; the upper quadrant is comprised of the most flesh and extends toward the underarm.

The Canadian Cancer Society also explains that the 1% of men afflicted with breast cancer is because of their lack of female hormones – not due to hairy armpits.
In 2004, an allergist named Dr. Kris McGrath published a study in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention that showed evidence that this myth was true. The study interviewed 400 breast cancer survivors and found that those who regularly performed underarm hygiene and grooming regimes were diagnosed with cancer an average of 22 years earlier. There was also evidence that nicks in the skin allowed the aluminium chloride to leach into the lymph nodes. Many specialists in the subject refute this study, as they have questioned the validity of the retrospective interviews.
Sources: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2002-10-17-email-hoax_x.htm

2) Wearing a bra can cause breast cancer
Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras written in 1995 by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, theorize that wearing a bra for more 18 hours per day increased the risk of breast cancer. Tight fitting bras reduce blood flow and put pressure on the lymphatic system, reducing the ability to remove toxins from the body. The book outlines that there is 100 times greater incidence of breast cancer than those who go bra-less. This claim means that women 3-4 times more likely to get breast cancer from wearing a bra, than by smoking cigarettes.

The Canadian Cancer Foundation explains that this not based on scientific evidence, rather is an anthropological study. Additionally, woman have been wearing restrictive garments for centuries, such as corsets, and it has been in recent decades that the instances of cancer have risen. The claim does not account for other risk factors and cannot be conclusively prove that a bra causes cancer.
Source: http://theminaretonline.com/?p=7798

3) Microwaving food in plastic containers causes cancer
The e-mail looks like this:
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in their newsletters worth noting... This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.Dioxin Carcinogens cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Don't freeze your plastic water bottles with water as this also releases dioxins in the plastic. Dr. Edward Fujimoto from Castle hospital was on a TV program explaining this health hazard. (He is the manager of the Wellness Program at the hospital.) He was talking about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.This applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination fat, high heat and plastics releases dioxins into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Dioxins are carcinogens and highly toxic to the cells of our bodies. Instead, he recommends using glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, without the dioxins.So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He said we might remember when some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.To add to this, Saran wrap placed over foods as they are nuked, with the high heat, actually drips poisonous toxins into the food, use paper towels.

The fact remains that Tupperware and other plastic food containers undergo rigorous testing and quality control before sold to consumers. The Mayo Clinic released a statement that microwave safe containers are fine to use, but urged people to avoid reheating food in plastic containers that are not microwave safe, such as margarine tubs.

4) Bottled water exposed to extreme temperatures cause cancer
Yet another email states:
Dioxin Carcinogens cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Don't freeze your plastic water bottles with water as this also releases dioxins in the plastic.
OR
A friend whose mother recently got diagnosed with breast cancer. The doctor told her women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be careful and do not drink that water bottle that has been left in a car and pass this on to all the women in your life.

In Canada, bottled water is considered to be a food and is regulated under the Food and Drugs Act. The companies that bottle water must comply with quality standards, good manufacturing practices, and labelling requirements.

Studies conducted on plastic water bottles, even under extreme temperatures, have failed to find that chemicals are produced at levels that would pose a health risk to anyone who drinks the water in question.

Some consumers have also expressed concern about the small white particles that often appear in bottled water that has been frozen and then thawed. These particles are minerals that separated from the water when it went through the extreme temperature change. They are not harmful to human health.

According to Dr. Rolf Halden of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, consumers face a much greater risk from potential exposure to microbial contaminants in bottled water — germs, to you and me — than from chemical ones. For that reason, most experts suggest not refilling or reusing empty bottles. He also explains that “freezing actually works against the release of chemicals. Chemicals do not diffuse readily in cold temperatures, which would limit chemical release if there were dioxins in plastics…”
Source: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/food-aliment/bottled-embouteillee-eng.php

5) Using tampons cause cancer
HERE'S THE SCOOP: Tampons contain two things that are potentially harmful: Rayon (for absorbency) and dioxin (a chemical used in bleaching the products). The tampon industry is convinced that we, as women, need bleached white. They seem to think that we view the product as pure and clean.

The problem here is that the dioxin produced in this bleaching process can lead to very harmful problems for a woman. Dioxin is potentially carcinogenic (cancer causing) and is toxic to the immune and reproductive system. It has been linked to endometriosis as well as lower sperm counts for men----for both, it breaks down the immune system.
Last September the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that there really is no set "acceptable" level of exposure to dioxin. Given that it is cumulative and slow to disintegrate, the real danger comes from repeated contact (Karen Houppert "Pulling the Plug on the Tampon Industry"). I'd say using about 5 tampons a day, five days a month, for 38 menstruating years is "repeated contact", wouldn't you? Rayon contributes to the danger of tampons and dioxin because it is a highly absorbent substance and therefore when fibres from the tampons are left behind in the vagina (as usually occurs), it creates a breeding ground for the dioxin, and stays in a lot longer than it would with just cotton tampons. This is also the reason why TSS (toxic shock syndrome) occurs.

Tampons are made from cotton, rayon or blends of both. Rayon is made from cellulose fibres derived from wood pulp. In this process the wood pulp is bleached. Bleaching the wood pulp was a potential source of trace amounts of dioxin in tampons at one time, but that bleaching method is no longer used. Rayon raw material used in US tampons is now produced using elemental chlorine-free or totally chlorine free bleaching processes. State-of-the-art testing of tampons and tampon materials that can detect even trace amounts of dioxin has shown that dioxin levels are at or below the detectable limit. No risk to health would be expected from these trace amounts. Risk assessment indicates that this exposure is many times less than normally present in the body from other environmental sources, so small that any risk of adverse health effects is considered negligible.
Source: http://www.cancer.ca/Ontario/About%20cancer/Cancer%20myths/Tampons%20and%20cancer.aspx?sc_lang=en