Breast Cancer...Some Ideas

[JPreisig@aol.com]

Greetings to all you rad-safers:

From: JPreisig@aol.com

    I have been thinking about breast cancer for a while now, based on a 
background
in radiation shielding, Monte Carlo Modelling and a grad course taken a long 
time
ago (now) in radiation biophysics.  Please refute and/or shoot holes in the 
following ideas as you deem necessary.

     Breast Cancer seems to be a lifetime disease, taking many years to reach 
final stages.   I assume that breasts are somewhat different from the rest of 
the
human body.  The human body consists mostly of water, while breasts are
formed of water, fat (carbon and water) and other things.

     While there are probably many other heredity factors in breast cancer,
I believe the primary heredity factor is that which controls the structure,
make-up, size and shape of the breast.  I believe that larger breasts 
(possibly
due to family genetics) are pre-disposed to cancer, although I have no data
in hand to prove this.

     I believe one (primary???) cause of breast cancer may be due to cosmic 
radiation (neutrons/protons/hadrons) interacting with the breasts.  I believe
one possible reaction for producing breast tumors, is neutron on Carbon-12
followed by neuton on Carbon-13, thereby producing C-14.  Do Cancerous
breasts (i.e. the tumors) have elevated levels of Carbon-14???  Other 
reactions
are possible.

     Clearly, one could use MCNP, LAHET, FLUKA,MARS and/or other Monte Carlo
computer codes to do hadron/neutron/proton transport studies on the
interactions with breasts of various dimensions.  I am not in professional
position right now to do such studies.  Perhaps in the future.

     We seem to do pretty well in treating (via lumpectomy, mastectomy, 
chemotherapy and/or radiation) breast cancer, provided the cancer is 
detected early on.  Perhaps, in addition to X-Rays, one could design special
NMR and CAT-scan equipment designed specifically (i.e. reduced in size
and dose) for breast imaging.

     If Cosmic radiation is involved is the production of breast cancer, 
perhaps 
understanding cosmic radiation's role will allow us better cancer prevention 
and treatment options.  

     I realize that the ideas presented here are perhaps over-simplified and 
based
on a rather limited understanding of the biological and/or chemical processes
involved in breast cancer.  Still, I think we cannot overlook the physical
(and/or nutritional) processes involved in breast cancer production.

     Sorry to get so heavy on the radsafe web (posting) board at this time of
night.  Thanks to Melissa Woo and the others responsible for the creation
of radsafe.  This WWW posting place is a great forum for the posting of ideas,
that may not ever make it to the final stages of publication.

    Have a great weekend!!!!

                                                      Joseph R. Preisig, Ph.D.
                                                      MS (Health Physics)