THE CANCER BUSINESS The same companies that profit from breast cancer treatments also manufacture cancer-causing toxins. by Monte Paulsen, Mother Jones, May/June 1994 http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MJ94/toc.html Here in the United States, where health care is a business rather sites, are also big players in the breast cancer business. GE sells than a right, the 182,000 women stricken by breast cancer annually more than $100 million a year of mammography machines, are not only an epidemic, but also a market opportunity. while Du Pont makes much of the film used in those machines. The market is dominated by some of the world's largest There are about 14,000 mammography machines installed corporations--many of which also produce and release the toxic in the United States. That's two to three times more than are organochlorine chemicals now suspected of causing breast cancer needed, according to an analysis by the National Cancer (see main story). These companies have a vested financial interest Institute. Those machines perform about 24 million in keeping breast cancer research and advocacy pointed away from mammograms a year, nine out of 10 of which are routine possible causes--such as corporate pollution--and focused on the screenings performed on asymptomatic women. Several profitable businesses of cancer detection and treatment. scientific studies suggest that such routine mammography does The relationships between these corporations and such not benefit women under 50, and some researchers propose that organizations as the federally funded National Cancer Institute and it may actually increase breast cancer risk. (See sidebar, the nonprofit American Cancer Society are complex, but many opposite.) argue that industry has undue influence over the direction of cancer Still, both Du Pont and GE aggressively market research. Here are a few troubling examples: mammography to younger women. A Du Pont TV ad even Cures and causes. boasts that the company's new film "makes it safer to start United Kingdom-based Zeneca Group PLC is the undisputed mammography early." leader in the breast cancer business, selling $470 million a year of a Although the National Cancer Institute recently stopped controversial treatment drug called Nolvadex. Zeneca also sells a advising mammograms for women under 50, the American carcinogenic herbicide called acetochlor, whose market is estimated Cancer Society (to which both Du Pont and GE contribute) at $300 million annually. The company has been in hot water for continues to advise women to have screening mammograms in allegedly releasing organochlorines into the environment--in 1990 their 40s. Zeneca (then a branch of Imperial Chemical Industries, from which Cancerous politics. it demerged in June 1993) was named in a lawsuit by federal and Almost 15 years ago, in his book "The Cancer Syndrome," state governments for allegedly dumping DDT and PCBs into Los Ralph Moss described the complex arrangement of interlocking Angeles and Long Beach harbors. (The suit is pending.) committees, boards of directors, funding, and investments that Nolvadex is Zeneca's trade name for tamoxifen citrate, a enable industry to exert substantial influence over cancer synthetic hormone. Tamoxifen is not a cure for breast cancer--it research and advocacy. The types of conflict of interest which helps prevent recurrences in women who have been successfully Moss described are still in effect today, as are a few new ones. treated for the disease. But tamoxifen is also thought to cause Zeneca is a pioneer in new ways of influencing breast uterine cancer and a number of other health problems. In a study at cancer activism. Take the example of the 10-year-old National the University of Pittsburgh that began in 1981, 23 of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which causes a talk-show approximately 4,000 women given tamoxifen contracted uterine frenzy each October and is supported by both the National cancer (as opposed to two from the control group), and four of them Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society. Few realize died of it. that Zeneca is the founder and sole financial sponsor of It is not clear how long Bernard Fisher, the lead scientist in the awareness month, and has spent several million dollars on the study, knew of the uterine-cancer deaths. But until recently, women event. And the message awareness month spreads via hundreds volunteering for Fisher's new Breast Cancer Prevention Trial of of thousands of posters, pamphlets, radio spots, newspaper ads, tamoxifen were told that "no deaths from uterine cancer were and promotional videos? "Early detection is your best reported" as a result of the earlier study. (On March 29, Fisher prevention... get a mammogram now." stepped down as principal investigator of 14 federally funded This year, Zeneca is turning its attention to the workplace. studies. He had been heavily criticized for his delays in disclosing Together with fellow pharmaceutical makers Glaxo and Merck, research fraud in several breast cancer studies, at least two of which Zeneca launched the Industries' Coalition Against Cancer in recommended tamoxifen.) April. Its goal is to encourage corporations to invest in "cancer Recruitment of additional women into the prevention trial has screening/prevention programs" such as "a mammography unit been temporarily halted, but the National Cancer Institute continues on site, a mobile van program, or perhaps a partnership with a to spend millions of taxpayer dollars giving tamoxifen to women cancer center." who don't have breast cancer to see if it will prevent them from Through these forays into pseudo-activism, companies like developing the disease. Tamoxifen is already the world's best- Zeneca have made treatment, rather than root causes, the issue. selling cancer drug, but if it is approved for use as a prevention The bottom line is this: There's little profit in preventing breast drug, Zeneca will be able to increase sales dramatically. cancer. Zeneca is not alone in simultaneously releasing Monte Paulsen is a reporter living in South Carolina. organochlorines into the environment and selling questionable Research assistance was provided by Anna Snider and potentially dangerous breast cancer treatments. Du Pont and General Electric, which compete for the dubious distinction of All rights reserved. Redistribution permitted with this notice attached. having the highest number of EPA Superfund hazardous waste Redistribution for profit prohibited.