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    « BACK to Jasmin Chua's portfolio

    Posted 03.24.04
    [MAMM Magazine] Sisters Get Into The Act
    Cancer-free siblings of women diagnosed with breast cancer join risk-factor study

    By Jasmin Chua

    Sisters are doing it for themselves. Fifty thousand of them, that is.

    A new endeavor by the Bethesda, Md.-based National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to determine the genetic and environmental risk factors for breast cancer will try to draw 50,000 cancer-free sisters of women who have had breast cancer to track them over 10 years. The aptly named Sister Study is reportedly the first long-term study of its kind and one that will be conducted in real time instead of retrospectively. "It's difficult for people to recall things that happened in the past with accuracy, and when you don't have accuracy, you may miss important associations [between something that happened a long time ago with a disease you may have today]," says Dale Sandler, MPH, PhD, chief of epidemiology at the NIEHS. "It's also likely that just having breast cancer changes your [blood chemistry] in some way...so it makes it difficult to interpret the results of tests we do [and determine if they led to cancer or they were a result of cancer]."

    The solution? A study that began before women became sick. Since previous studies showed that having a sister with breast cancer doubled one's risk of developing the disease, these cancer-free sisters were determined to be the ideal group. "Sisters are really good to study also because they're interested," Dr. Sandler says. "They're worried. It's their sister. They have a personal stake."

    There was no doubt in Connie Orr's mind when her older sister and 11-year breast cancer survivor, Sherrill Jackson, approached her with information about the study. "I feel that this is the least contribution I can make," Orr says. "I told her 'absolutely, yes'." Jackson, in turn, has volunteered to be on the Sister Study's regional board.

    A Sister Study kit containing material and instructions will be provided to all participants at no cost. Requirements include the completion of four questionnaires and a telephone interview, as well as a one-off collection of blood, urine and house dust samples. The women who develop breast cancer over the course of the study will then be checked against a random sample from the cancer-free group for differences in exposure levels of biological and chemical agents such as insulin, solvents and pesticides.

    For its first 2,000 participants, the Sister Study will be recruiting from the metropolitan areas of four pilot cities-St. Louis, Missouri, Phoenix, Arizona, Providence, Rhode Island and Tampa, Florida. They expect to be able to extend recruitment nationally by early next year and hope to be able to show results even before the 10 years are up.

    The main difficulty, Sandler says, is attracting a diverse group of women. "We have a strong commitment to making sure that we can learn something from this study that applies to all women," she says. "Not just women who own a computer or women who have enough time to be surfing the Net."

    For more information about the study or to sign up, call toll-free at 1-877-4SISTER (1-877-4747837) or visit www.sisterstudy.org.

    Published in MAMM Magazine, Jan/Feb 2004