We Are Breast Cancer Survivors Taking Action Through Research

We focused our attention on societal causes, primarily, the environmental causes of breast cancer and their link to the milieu of chemical and toxic exposures in our lives. Aside from hereditary/genetic tendencies which only comprise 10% of all breast cancer diagnoses, we knew one way or another, environmental exposure contributed to our cancer diagnoses.

Breast Cancer Over Time was originally established as a hospital-based support group for women in treatment and living with breast cancer post-treatment…

As group members emerged from active treatment, our discussions turned to a shared sense of urgency. What we could do to uniquely prevent our own young daughters and the next generation of young women from getting breast cancer?

We pursued collaboration with renowned scientific researchers to study causation by environmental exposure.

Formed a relationship with Breast Cancer Surgeon, Dr. William Goodson MD, and Dr. Shanaz Dairkee PhD, a scientist at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute. The emphasis of Dr. Dairkee’s research is the impact of exposures to commonly-encountered chemicals on normal human breast cells. She provided insight on cancer research’s lack of focus on the cellular processes of breast carcinogenesis and how the human breast cell actually becomes vulnerable to cancer.

Results of our research study were published in the peer-reviewed journal Chemosphere in May, 2023, in an article entitled "Reduction of daily-use parabens and phthalates reverses accumulation of cancer-associated phenotypes within disease-free breast tissue of study subjects."

It was the first of its kind study where breast cancer survivors collaborated with renowned breast cancer researchers at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, to investigate the impact of reducing specific chemical exposures on breast cells.