Working Toward Prevention: Assessing the Impact of the 2013 "Breast Cancer and the Environment" Report

• In Event: 089 - Regular Session. Multiple Facets of the Social and Physical Environment on Health

Abstract

As breast cancer rates continue to increase in the United States, there is growing scientific consensus that genetics alone only accounts for a small percentage of cases. Within the breast cancer and environmental breast cancer movements, there has been a longstanding call for research and public policy aimed toward the prevention of breast cancer. At least three significant reports published since 2010 focus attention on environmental contributors to cancer and breast cancer. This paper seeks to assess the impact of these reports on research funding, public policy and advocacy. Initial research conducted focuses on direct and indirect outcomes of the February 2013 report Breast Cancer and the Environment: Prioritizing Prevention, a report mandated by the 2008 Breast Cancer and Environment Research Act. While this paper focuses on the impact of this report, I also consider the place of this report in the larger trajectory of the environmental breast cancer movement in the United States. Findings indicate a number of direct impacts, perhaps most importantly new grant funding for transdisciplinary research on environmental contributors to breast cancer. Additionally, this paper addresses significant barriers to the implementation of the report’s recommendations. Barriers identified include: limited audience, lack of specificity regarding pertinent parties and scope of implementation, and lack of a structured system of accountability. Ongoing research on this project currently incorporates assessments of the 2010 President’s Cancer Panel report and 2012 Institute of Medicine report on funding, policy and advocacy, attempting to ascertain both unique and collective outcomes of these reports.

Author

• Lauren Elizabeth Richter, Northeastern University