Counseling Sheet

Agatha M. Thrash, M.D.
Preventive Medicine
‍

Despite widespread campaigns to try to decrease the incidence of breast cancer, it has been obvious for many years that breast cancer is increasing in our population, that it is a very serious and common disease, and that something in our environment promotes cancer of the breast. While a high fat diet has been recognized as a prime offender in causing breast cancer, only recently it has been shown that any kind of breast disease that a woman suffers from can become a forerunner of breast cancer. Cystic disease, fibrosis, and any other kind of lumpiness can predispose to breast cancer. Now comes information that common American beverages are associated with the production of fibrocystic disease of the breast, and possibly also with benign prostatic enlargement.

Early in 1979, reports began to appear in medical journals linking the use of common beverages with lumpiness of the breasts. Coffee, tea, cola drinks, and chocolate contain chemical substances called methylxanthines, which are capable of increasing cell growth in the breasts of susceptible women to cause fibrocystic breast disease. This very common disease is responsible for about 90% of the operations on the breast.

Methylxanthines work by stimulating a certain chemical within the cell that controls growth activity. This cellular chemical is called cyclic AMP. It is normally broken down after it has sent a brief growth signal into the cell. However, caffeine, theophylline from tea, and theobromine from chocolate block the destroying enzyme, jam the cyclic AMP signal in its "on" position, causing the target cells to continue to grow. Physicians can expect that 65% of women with fibrocystic disease of the breast will have a complete regression of the cystic lumps in the breasts within two months of stopping the use of coffee, tea, colas, and chocolate.

The prostate gland in men is very similar in cell composition to the breast. It appears to respond in the same way to the growth signal of cyclic AMP to cause benign prostatic hypertrophy. It is likely that the methylxanthines affect cyclic AMP in the prostate in the same way that breast cells are affected.

Dr. John P. Minton, of Ohio State University in Columbus, has performed the pioneer work in this area, and points out that women with fibrocystic disease have 4 times the normal risk of breast cancer. Since breast cancer is a common, increasing, and very serious disease, it is well for physicians to give the general counsel to all women to stop using methylxanthines. Dr. Minton found more than 5 times as much cyclic AMP in malignant breast tissue as in healthy breasts, and three times as much as in fibrocystic lumps.

The temperature of the skin in all parts of the body should be about the same. However, because of sweat gland distribution and positioning of the organs, there are two parts of the human body that normally remain cooler than the other parts: the female breasts and the male scrotum. The scrotum is carried in a relaxed position in hot weather, allowing the delicate testes to be separated from body heat. Normally, the testes are several degrees cooler than the tissues of the male pelvis, if the clothing is not restrictive. It is well-known among urologists that testes kept at a higher temperature are more likely to develop cancers. For this reason, if a testis does not descend properly from the abdomen into the scrotum, a young man will undergo an operation to remove the testis, to reduce the likelihood of his getting cancer of the testis.

Overheating the female breasts, similarly, results in an increase in disease of the breast. Since breast cancer is 4 times more likely to occur in diseased breasts than in normal breasts, it is desirable not to overclothe the breasts, not to wear more clothing on the trunk than on the extremities, but to engage in vigorous exercise daily that will promote circulation, induce proper sweating, and encourage cellular resistance to disease.