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June 1, 2010
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF "M"
She was born in the middle of the cold war in a Communist country in Eastern Europe. Her parents divorced when she was still a toddler, and then her father killed himself when she was eight. As a teenager, she escaped, by chance, to the United States. At twenty-five, she announced that she was gay and, undaunted by any opponent, proceeded to become the most dominant female tennis player the world has ever seen. In perfect physical condition, she authored a book in 2006, Shape Yourself, expressing her personal philosophy of health and nutrition. Martina Navratilova was, even into middle age, at the top of her game.
In January, 2010, she had a screening mammogram, her first in four years, that revealed non-invasive ductal carcinoma in-situ, the least threatening type of breast cancer. She underwent breast conservation and radiation therapy and now we hope she will only ever be a survivor and not a mortality.
If Martina Navratilova, as fit as any woman can be, can get breast cancer, what’s the point, you might ask, of a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise? Besides being a woman, the most important risk factor for breast cancer, Martina never had a child, which just slightly increases her risk. But given her superb physical condition, shouldn’t she have been protected? Martina’s case is just now the most glaring example of how much we don’t know about what causes breast cancer and how important it is to find out. With 1.4 million new cases of breast cancer expected around the world in 2010 – with Martina’s perhaps being the most incongruent case – we really need to grand slam the questions about the causes of breast cancer back into the court of destiny and put an end to this disease by understanding what’s causing it in the first place.
The human mammary tumor virus is a suspect in this ongoing murder mystery. Some would say it is a prime suspect: evidence of the human mammary tumor virus has been discovered by multiple independent investigators in approximately forty percent of breast cancer specimens collected around the world. In Tunisia, where there’s a very high incidence of inflammatory breast cancer, the virus has been identified in almost seventy-five percent of cases. The same is true when investigators have studied inflammatory breast cancer specimens elsewhere in the world. The Australians are actively engaged in research on the human mammary tumor virus, as are the Austrians. Yet precious little research is done here in the United States, and those who are engaged in this work are starving. One brilliant and seasoned researcher has lost her lab entirely. Another has had to lay off two laboratory technicians and has had to downsize twice in the past twelve months. Her money completely runs out in little more than a year. Then what?
How many more women, all of them stars in their own way, must have their games upset by a ruthless opponent, breast cancer, before we get the answers we need – especially regarding the human mammary tumor virus? To settle the score and begin to aggressively prevent this disease we need to open the funding doors for research on the human mammary tumor virus. Let’s answer the question, for Martina and Hoda and Robyn and Sheryl and every other woman, star or not, Does a virus cause breast cancer in women?
Regards,
Kathleen T. Ruddy, MD
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