Environmental Exposures during Puberty: Window of Breast Cancer Risk and Epigenetic Damage

During puberty, a woman's breasts are vulnerable to environmental damage ("window of vulnerability"). Early exposure to environmental carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and unhealthy foods (refined sugar, processed fats, food additives) are hypothesized to promote molecular damage tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-01, Vol.17 (2), p.493
Main Authors: Natarajan, Rama, Aljaber, Dana, Au, Dawn, Thai, Christine, Sanchez, Angelica, Nunez, Alan, Resto, Cristal, Chavez, Tanya, Jankowska, Marta M, Benmarhnia, Tarik, Yang, Jiue-An, Jones, Veronica, Tomsic, Jerneja, McCune, Jeannine S, Sistrunk, Christopher, Doan, Stacey, Serrano, Mayra, Cardiff, Robert D, Dietze, Eric C, Seewaldt, Victoria L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology
Breast Neoplasms - genetics
Disease Susceptibility
Environmental Exposure
Epigenesis, Genetic
Female
Humans
Nutritional Status
Obesity - epidemiology
Puberty
Residence Characteristics
Review
Risk Factors
Stress, Physiological
Stress, Psychological
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Summary:During puberty, a woman's breasts are vulnerable to environmental damage ("window of vulnerability"). Early exposure to environmental carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and unhealthy foods (refined sugar, processed fats, food additives) are hypothesized to promote molecular damage that increases breast cancer risk. However, prospective human studies are difficult to perform and effective interventions to prevent these early exposures are lacking. It is difficult to prevent environmental exposures during puberty. Specifically, young women are repeatedly exposed to media messaging that promotes unhealthy foods. Young women living in disadvantaged neighborhoods experience additional challenges including a lack of access to healthy food and exposure to contaminated air, water, and soil. The purpose of this review is to gather information on potential exposures during puberty. In future directions, this information will be used to help elementary/middle-school girls to identify and quantitate environmental exposures and develop cost-effective strategies to reduce exposures.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17020493