Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study

Breast cancer incidence among women living on Cape Cod in Massachusetts is 20 percent higher than that for women living elsewhere in Massachusetts. Because Cape Cod is a fragile ecosystem, with water resources easily affected by contaminants deposited on the land surface or leached from wastewater, breast cancer activists called for an investigation of the role that environmental pollutants played in the long-term health of Cape residents. In 1994, Silent Spring Institute began a long-term, epidemiologic study on Cape Cod to investigate the possible role environmental factors have on breast cancer incidence on Cape Cod.

The Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study, an ongoing case-control study of invasive breast cancer, investigates Cape women's historical exposures to contaminants in tap water, especially contaminants such as endocrine disrupting chemicals and chemicals known to cause mammary cancer in animals. This research is important because if we know about environmental risks that may increase breast cancer incidence we may be able to take preventive steps.

Cape Cod Breast Cancer and the Environment Atlas

Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study has been funded by The Dolphin Trust, Massachusetts Department of Public Health Breast Cancer Research Program, and Massachusetts Environmental Trust.