NO CURE FOR CANCER!! And other unfortunate truths.

So you might have read recently about the BREAST CANCER VACCINE! Almost every major news source has a story on the BREAST CANCER VACCINE! I write it this way with this punctuation because that is exactly the mood and tone in which this news has been delivered to us. From the sounds of the headlines, we will soon be given yet another booster shot, but this one will - wait for it - STOP BREAST CANCER!!

Okay, now for the discouraging part.

This vaccine has been tested on 12 mice. Yup, you heard me. 12 mice. 12 mice who were genetically engineered to have a genetic predisposition for breast cancer. Right there, we have already run into some problems. Breast cancer is not a primarily genetic disease. Less than 10% are genetically caused. The rest are caused by a confusing and ever changing combination of lifestyle and environment.

So why the trumpeting headlines? Because the company who is testing this thing needs more money if it's ever going to actually make it to human trials which are - despite the headlines - about 2 years away.

If you are serious about addressing the threat of breast cancer - and frankly, we all should be - then these "Dirty Dozen Risk Factors For Breast Cancer" are a good place to start, provided by the Cancer Prevention Coalition on my next blog post.