Seattle Catholic - NCI Scientists Tell Women: Better that You Develop Breast Cancer than Have Our Scientific Misconduct Exposed

Press Release
Contact: Karen Malec, 847/421-4000
For Immediate Release
Date: February 27, 2003

NCI Scientists Tell Women: Better that You Develop Breast Cancer than Have Our Scientific Misconduct Exposed

Scientists attending a workshop sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced yesterday there is no association between abortion and breast cancer risk and claimed that their own findings were fundamentally flawed as a result of a alleged phenomenon called "recall bias" or "report bias." Illogically, scientists also claimed that a full term pregnancy reduces risk. The NCI posted a statement on its website about the workshop entitled "Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer."

A dissenting voice at the workshop was Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute and a Baruch College endocrinologist. Dr. Brind maintained that scientific evidence supports a causal relationship between abortion and breast cancer.

Karen Malec, the president of a women’s organization, the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, commented that "Women aren’t stupid. We can connect the dots. If a full term pregnancy protects against breast cancer and childlessness raises risk, then logically an abortion will raise risk."

Mrs. Malec said, "The NCI, the American Cancer Society and other cancer organizations concealed the existence of this ongoing research since 1957. In recent years, they have lied to women and omitted important facts about the research on their websites. [1,2,3,4,5] Now the same scientists who rely on these organizations for funding expect women to believe them when they say "There is no relationship between abortion and breast cancer,’ although their own research says otherwise. These organizations know that if they ever admit to a relationship between abortion and breast cancer, then they’ll have to face the wrath of women. The NCI and other cancer groups are only postponing the day when they will have to answer for their misconduct."

Mrs. Malec added, "Scientists know there is no evidence of recall bias, a theory which says that more cancer patients honestly report their abortion histories than healthy women. The study, Howe et al. 1989 ruled out any possibility of recall bias because researchers used medical records and matched them to fetal death certificates. They did not use interviews. Yet Howe et al. found a statistically significant 89% increased risk." [6]

Discussion of the workshop on the government’s website included the use of Orwellian terminology and studiously avoided the use of the word "abortion" on its agenda. A statement from the workshop says that scientists purportedly explored "the risk of breast cancer associated with pregnancy," as if pregnancy led to breast cancer. The statement states that the purpose of the workshop was "to discuss the scientific data available regarding the reproductive events in a woman's life that may impact her subsequent risk of breast cancer."

Scientists at the workshop misrepresented the findings of an animal study conducted by Russo and Russo. [7] Malcolm Pike, lead author of Pike et al. 1981 [8] alleged that an equal number of virgin rats and aborted rats developed breast cancer.

"Truth is," said Mrs. Malec, "77.7% of aborted rats developed breast cancer after being exposed to a carcinogen. Among similarly exposed virgin rats 66.7% developed breast cancer. Among those allowed to have a full term pregnancy, none developed breast cancer. Among those allowed to lactate, one out of nine developed breast cancer. But at least, Dr. Pike didn’t insult our intelligence by asking us to believe that rats don’t have breasts as one Yale scientist, Gil Mor, did during an interview with Discovery this year." [9]

Mrs. Malec concluded, "The American Cancer Society expects 211,300 cases of invasive breast cancer this year, an increase of approximately 8,000 cases over last year’s estimate. Yet, the NCI tells women its scientists don’t know why breast cancer rates surged by more than 40% between 1987 and 1998. Moreover, they haven’t explained why the increase was limited to the younger women of the Roe v. Wade generation, not to older women." [10]

The workshop statement reveals that a final report "will be presented to NCI's Board of Scientific Advisors and Board of Scientific Counselors on March 3."

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is an international women’s organization founded to protect the health and save the lives of women by educating and providing information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer.

COALITION ON ABORTION/BREAST CANCER
P.O. Box 152
Palos Heights, IL 60463
Toll Free 1-877-803-0102
Local Calls 1-630-226-9336
An International Women's Organization
www.AbortionBreastCancer.com
response@abortionbreastcancer.com

References

1) Joel Brind, Ph.D., "Latest web page from the National Cancer Institute: A well cooked bowl of factoids," RFM News, March 23, 2002; http://abortionbreastcancer.com/Public_Policy.htm.

2) Joel Brind, Ph.D., "NCI’s new ABC "facts": Fewer lies: U.S. National Cancer lnstitute Changes Website Under Congressional Pressure," AbortionBreast Cancer Quarterly; Fall, 1999; http://abortionbreastcancer.com/article_once.htm.

3) "National Cancer Institute shamelessly carries on cover-up," Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, Press Release, March 20th, 2002; http://abortionbreastcancer.com/press_releases.htm.

4) "National Breast Cancer Coalition chided for politicizing abortion-breast cancer research; Attempts to intimidate U.S. Rep. Hostettler;" Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, Press Release; August 21, 2002; http://abortionbreastcancer.com/press_releases.htm.

5) Karen Malec, "October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month," RFM News, October 22, 2002; http://abortionbreastcancer.com/newsletter102202.htm.

6) Howe et al. Early abortion and breast cancer risk among women under age 40. Int J Epidemiol (1989) (2):300-4.

7) Russo J, Russo IH. Susceptibility of the mammary gland to carcinogenesis.. Am J Pathol (1980) 100(2):497-512.

8) Pike MC, Henderson BE, Casagrande JT, Rosario I, Gray GE. "Oral contraceptive use and early abortion as risk factors for breast cancer in young women. Br J Cancer 1981; 43:72-6.

9) Barry Yeoman, "Abortion and breast cancer: The truth on trial," Self Magazine, August 2002.

10) Howe HL, Wingo PA, Thun MJ, Ries LA, Rosenberg HM, Feigal EG, Edwards BK. Annual report to the nation on the status of cancer (1973 through 1998), featuring cancers with recent increasing trends. JNCI (2001) Vol. 93, No. 11, 824-42.


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