Milk Samples Needed for Breast Cancer Research Study

African American moms are needed for a breastmilk study. Can you help?

As I've written before, I have the privelege of working with Professor Kathleen Arcaro at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on her groundbreaking breast cancer/breastmilk research.

Kathleen analyses breastmilk to study DNA changes in breast cells, which are naturally present in breastmilk, and their relationship to breast cancer. It's very gratifying work because a better understanding of these patterns may one day lead to new early detection, prevention and treatment strategies for breast cancer. Here's a sampling of some of the recent press coverage about this research.

Our current goal is to recruit African-American mothers to donate milk samples. Why African-American moms? Because Kathleen wants to ensure that her findings apply to all women, and to do that she needs a diverse sample of mothers participating. Having African-American moms well represented in this research is of particular interest because we have different patterns of breast cancer than women of other races. You may know that black women are more likely to get triple negative breast cancer, which is more aggressive and more likely to reocur, spread beyond the breast and result in death.

One of my main duties is helping Kathleen recruit moms to participate in her studies. The response to her work has been incredible, but we still need more black moms to donate breast milk! So, the UMass Breastmilk Lab is currently seeking:

•African American mothers who are nursing

•Living anywhere in the U.S.

•Willing to donate a *fresh* breastmilk sample (shipped via overnight mail at the lab's expense)

•Willing to fill out a consent form and questionnaire

Participants will receive $25 in thanks - and the knowledge that they are advancing our understanding of breast cancer! I hope that you can donate, or help us find moms willing to donate milk for this important research.

To participate, or for more information, you can email Beth, or call Beth or Eva at (413) 545-0813. More information is also available at the UMass Breastmilk Lab website. You can also like us on Facebook where we're keeping you updated on the latest in breastmilk research and Kathleen's work!

We need help spreading the word about this study. Contact me if you'd like me to write a guest post, and link, share on Facebook, Pin, and Tweet to your heart's content!

And if you're African-American (nursing or not), PLEASE consider signing up for the Love/Avon Army of Women, who are funding this important research. Please select "Breast milk study" when asked how you heard about the Army of Women.

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Black moms needed to sign up for the Army of Women

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you may have heard that I am working with Dr. Kathleen Arcaro of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst on her groundbreaking breastmilk and breast cancer study. Along with Tanya Lierberman, IBCLC of the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog and Kathi Barber, CLC and author of The Black Woman's Guide to Breastfeeding. We are specifically recruiting black moms to give a breastmilk sample to be analyzed in Dr. Arcaro's lab. The response from you all has been amazing and the milk samples are um, pouring in. Because of you, we are on our way to ensuring that this important breast cancer research represents ALL women. We will eventually need more of you to send in milk samples, but today I am asking you for a different, but just as important, favor.

I want all of my African American women readers, whether you're breastfeeding or not, to sign up for the Love/Avon Army of Women.

What's the Army of Women? It's an effort backed by Dr. Suan Love and the Avon Foundation to focus on breast cancer prevention. Great strides have been made in the treatment of breast cancer, but little progress has been made in preventing women from developing breast cancer in the first place. The Army of Women connects women with researchers so that they can participate in research (if they choose) to help us understand how to prevent breast cancer.

How does it work? You register and provide very basic information such as your name, email, age, city, and state of residence. You will then receive email updates from us announcing new research studies looking for volunteers with or without breast cancer, just like you. If you fit the criteria and you’d like to participate, all you need to do is “RSVP.” You will be asked to go through an online screening process to confirm you fit the criteria for the study. Throughout the process, you remain in complete control and you self select what you want to do! You will never be pressured to take part in any study. The decision to take part is yours—and yours alone.

The most important part is that when you fill out the registration form you check "breast milk study" when asked how you learned about the Army of Women.

Why are we looking for African American women? Researchers want to ensure that their findings apply to all women, and to do that they need a diverse pool of particpants for their studies. A good example is the current call for African American moms to participate in the Jewels in our Genes study, which is recruiting African American breast cancer survivors now.

What can you do? Please go to the Army of Women registration page and please select "breast milk study" when asked how you learned about the Army of Women. We thank you!




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Breast Cancer Vaccine: Medical Miracle or Scary Science?

Dr. Vincent Tuohy of the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute thinks he may have found a way to eradicate breast cancer as we know it. Dr. Tuohy found that a single vaccination with the antigen alpha-lactalbumin prevented breast cancer tumors from forming in mice. Because of the favorable results, human trials of the vaccine could begin as early as next year.

So how does this work? Unlike most doctors who work in cancer research, Dr. Tuohy is an immunologist, so his approach to curing cancer has been different. Rather than targeting cancers that are already present and developed, his idea was to attack the tumor before it even has a chance to grow. What we already know about cancer is that  it is an overdelopment of the body's own cells, rather than an invasion of foreign bodies. So this vaccine attacks the healthy cells before they can become cancerous, rather than vaccinating against a virus.

In the research article published in this month's Nature journal, the researchers explain how they came to develop the vaccine.

"We selected a-lactalbumin as our target vaccine autoantigen because it is a breast-specific differentiation protein expressed in high amounts in the majority of human breast carcinomas and in mammary epithelial cells only during lactation. We found that immunoreactivity against a-lactalbumin provides substantial protection and therapy against growth of autochthonous tumors in transgenic mouse models of breast cancer and against 4T1 transplantable breast tumors in BALB/c mice. Because a-lactalbumin is conditionally expressed only during lactation, vaccination-induced prophylaxis occurs without any detectable inflammation in normal nonlactating breast tissue. Thus, a-lactalbumin vaccination may provide safe and effective protection against the development of breast cancer for women in their post–child-bearing, premenopausal years, when lactation is readily avoidable and risk for developing breast cancer is high."

So basically the key to curing cancer is finding a target within the tumor that is not typically found in healthy people. Alpha-lactalbumin is not found in healthy women, except when they breastfeed. So this vaccine will attack the a-lactalbumin. Did you catch that this vaccine would prevent women from being able to breastfeed? From the full text of the article (which I'm able to access through a subscription database):


 "This unique conditional expression of a differentiation protein provides an opportunity for prophylactic breast cancer vaccination of normal healthy women who are either willing to avoid lactation or are past their child-bearing years." [emphasis mine]

It sounds like they've figured out a way to remove healthy tissue before it becomes cancerous that would allow women to keep their breasts and not have to have mastectomies. Sounds good, right?


But what about younger women who have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer? Will they be encouraged to get the vaccine before their child-bearing years are over? And what if they want the vaccine, because in their minds, giving up breastfeeding is a small price to pay to eliminate the risk of cancer AND get to keep your breasts. According to a press release from the Lerner Institute, the strategy would be to vaccinate women over 40. But many women are still having children well into their 40s. These women would also likely have to forget about being able to breastfeed


And what about the most ironic thing of all, that we already know that breastfeeding can reduce your risk of getting breast cancer in the first place? A study at Yale found that breastfeeding for two years cut a woman's breast cancer risk by 50%. 

Where does it end? Dr. Tuohy thinks an adult vaccination program is the wave of the future. Instead of your vaccine schedule ending in childhood, you'd start all over at age 40, getting a vaccine for breast and ovarian cancer and maybe even Alzheimer's one day.


So what do you think about a breast cancer vaccine? Would you get it?

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