The third Friday in October each year is National Mammography Day, first proclaimed by President Clinton in 1993. On this day, or throughout the month, we encourage women to make a mammography appointment. In 2005, National Mammography Day will be celebrated on October 21.

To find a facility in your area, please call:
American Cancer Society
(800) 227-2345

National Cancer Institute
(800) 4-CANCER

Selenium Supplementation May Reduce Cancer Risk
One in every four deaths in this country is caused by cancer. That's 1,500 people each day. Many of these cancers are caused by our own bad behaviors - tobacco and alcohol use, lack of exercise, and poor diet - which has led researchers to investigate the ability of nutritional supplements to reduce cancer risk.

There's now convincing evidence that selenium (an essential mineral found in various foods such as Brazil nuts and mushrooms) when taken daily as a supplement can significantly reduce the risk of cancer. In one clinical study, the risk of prostate cancer was reduced 63% in men supplementing with selenium compared to a placebo group. This result has created tremendous interest in the medical community and the National Cancer Institute has funded a much larger study called SELECT (Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial) that will enroll 32,000 male subjects to better determine selenium's ability to prevent cancer. For more information about SELECT and the selenium-prostate cancer link, visit crab.org/select/.

Selenium supplementation seems to protect against other cancers as well. According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, research suggests that selenium can also protect humans against cancer of the lung, ovaries, breast, colon, liver, cervix, skin, stomach and uterus. When sufficient selenium levels are achieved, the risk of getting cancer is half that of a person who is selenium deficient. There are few good food sources of selenium, so supplementation may be the best way to attain selenium's protective benefits.

Related Articles:

Genetic clue links selenium to breast cancer prevention
Selenium, a trace element found in foods such as certain nuts, liver and kidneys, may prove to be an important nutritional supplement for preventing breast cancer -- if a person is genetically predisposed to the disease.

The correlation is being studied by two University of Illinois at Chicago nutrition scientists. Alan Diamond, professor and head of human nutrition, and Ya Jun Hu, a research assistant professor, report on their latest findings in the June 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

Digital Mammography Outperforms Film for Some Women
Results from the largest randomized trial ever comparing digital mammography with standard film mammography confirm earlier indications that digital mammography is more accurate for women with dense breasts. Several other groups of women benefited from undergoing screening with digital mammography instead of film, including women under 50 and pre- and perimenopausal women.

"Designer" foods: tomorrow's answer to breast cancer prevention?
Selenium-enriched garlic is just one of the "designer foods" being tested as a cancer preventative by Clement Ip, Ph.D., a breast cancer researcher in Roswell Park Cancer Institute's Division of Breast Surgery, Department of Surgical Oncology. These days, Dr. Ip's laboratory smells like an Italian restaurant. In one recent study, Dr. Ip discovered that garlic -- enriched by the anticancer agent selenium -- protected animals against breast tumors.

Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool
This tool is a computer program that women and their health care providers can use to estimate a woman's chances of developing breast cancer based on several recognized risk factors. Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) developed this tool using information from over 300,000 women with breast cancer.

Para información en español
Si hablas español y necesitas información
sobre el cáncer de mama, por favor llame
a la línea de Y-ME al 1-800-986-9505