Re: May I propose a physicist?/Breast cancer

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

>In a letter to the Editor of Risk Analysis, " Breast Cancer, Radon, and 
>Brassieres???, Risk Analysis, 17(5), 525-526 (1997),

I read that article and then followed up with a discussion with a woman who 
did her PhD on breast cancer at the Karolinska Institute in 1995. We 
disussed the topic (causes) with an open minded approach and one bottom line 
seems to be that all (most?) suggested "correlants" seem to be related to 
estrogen in some way. This woman also immediately pointed out that breast 
size in itself is a correlating factor - women with small breasts may not 
even wear bras and there may be a bias from this. Anyway, I suppose that 
part of the message may be that more cells relate in a directly proportional 
way to a higher probability of having malignant events occurring.

My own reflections only,

Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com

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