The Link Between Estrogen Dominance and Breast Cancer
August 19, 2009 by Jenn
Filed under Estrogen Dominance Symptoms
Although estrogen dominance is responsible for causing many problems, none is more frightening or potentially harmful than breast cancer. 
In the United States alone, 150,000 women are diagnosed each year with breast cancer and 45,000 die from the disease. Researchers are working diligently to find a way to prevent breast cancer and have discovered a definite link between estrogen and breast cancer.
In a post by Dr. Steven Hotze, he explains the results of a study conducted by John Hopkins University’s School of Public Health. The study was originally set up to research infertility in a group of women who were having trouble conceiving. The group was divided in two; those whose fertility issues were caused by non-hormonal reasons and those who were deemed infertile because of progesterone deficiency and estrogen dominance. For more than 30 years, the researchers also recorded the cases of breast cancer among the women. The end result? The premenopausal women with estrogen dominance turned out to have a whopping 540% greater risk for developing breast cancer than the other women. This is just one of many studies that have linked estrogen to breast cancer.
Estrogen Receptors and Breast Cancer
So what role does estrogen play in breast cancer? Let’s take a closer look at what is known about how estrogen is involved.
Hormones like estrogen are needed in multiple areas of the body so they travel through the bloodstream looking for their matching hormone receptors. Hormone receptors are special protein molecules attached to many cells in your body. They act like an on-off switch for certain cell activities. When the matching hormone comes along, it fits into the receptor like a key into a lock and turns on a specific activity.
One of the jobs of estrogen is to stimulate cell growth in breast tissue, so there are estrogen receptors located there. When the estrogen fits into the estrogen receptor, the estrogen signals the cells to divide and multiply. The estrogen cannot tell the difference between healthy cells and cancerous cells and attaches to estrogen receptors in both types of cells. Cancer cells are already prone to multiplying very rapidly and they are stimulated even more by estrogen.
Estrogen can also direct cells to make receptors for other hormones, including progesterone, which is another hormone that instructs cells in the breast to multiply. So estrogen can actually play a double role in encouraging the growth of cancer cells.
Do all breast cancer cells have hormone receptors? No, but doctors do know that about 75% of cancerous breast tumors are estrogen-receptor positive and 65% are progesterone-receptor positive. There are tumors with receptors for both hormones and some that do not have any hormone receptors.
Can Controlling Estrogen Metabolism Prevent Breast Cancer?
Scientists are working diligently to see if they can help prevent breast cancer by controlling estrogen metabolism in the body.
Here’s what many scientists think might be happening. They believe that it’s not just about how much estrogen is in your system, but how that estrogen is broken down, or metabolized, that may be an important factor. Estrogen creates a ‘good’ metabolite called 2-hydroxyestrone that is correlated with a decreased risk of breast cancer and a ‘bad’ metabolite called 16-hydroxyestrone that is associated with a high risk.
There is now a test available to help predict your breast cancer risk. The 2/16 estrogen metabolism test is a urine test that measures the ratio of those two important estrogen metabolites. An estrogen metabolism ratio of 2.0 or higher seems to mean that you are less likely to get breast cancer.
Why not talk to your doctor about an estrogen metabolism 2/16 test? The estrogen metabolism ratio can and does change throughout your life. If you do find that your risk for breast cancer is high, there are simple steps you can take to improve your estrogen metabolism ratio and as as result, defend yourself against this deadly disease. Take a look at the post “Your Breast Cancer Defense” to learn about some of the ways to improve your estrogen metabolism ratio and decrease your risk of breast cancer.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] DIM is particularly helpful to people who have estrogen dominance because it stimulates the aerobic metabolism of estrogen. It helps shift the production of estrogen metabolites away from 16-hydroxy, which is the bad form and believed to promote cancers, to 2-hydroxy, the beneficial form that is anti-carcinogenic. This improves your estrogen metabolism ratio and, in turn, makes you less estrogen dominant. For more information on the importance of estrogen metabolism, see The Link Between Estrogen Dominance and Breast Cancer. [...]