Finding the cause of cancer is where the real battle lies.

Finding a cause, much like the correlation of HPV with cervical cancer, could lead to a vaccine for breast cancer as well.

Environmental factors and lifestyle need to be explored as major contributing factor to all cancers.

In reality, we still do not know what causes breast cancer, which means we really do not know how to prevent it, either. That has pushed us to focus on looking for cancers that are already there, a practice long based on the assumption that all cancers were the same, grew at a similar rate and were visible in the breast for a period of time before spreading. It made sense: If you could find cancers earlier, you could save lives.

A new study shows that those women whose diets were low in red meat, sodium and processed carbohydrates and high in plant based foods and legumes may have a somewhat decreased risk of developing one type of breast cancer,

The findings, from a large, long-running study of U.S. nurses, showed that women with diets high in plant foods — but low in red meat, sodium and processed carbohydrates — tended to have a lower risk of developing certain breast tumors.

Of more than 86,000 women the study followed for 26 years, slightly less than one percent developed ER-negative breast cancer.

The risk, researchers found, was lower among women whose diets most closely resembled the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet — an eating plan experts recommended for lowering blood pressure. It emphasizes vegetables, fruit, fiber-rich grains, legumes and nuts, and low-fat dairy.

A new breast cancer gene shows hope of determining a woman’s chance for developing the disease.

A woman harboring a CHEK2 mutation, for instance, would have a 34 percent risk of developing breast cancer if her mother or sister had the disease.

For women who test negative for the BRCA 1 this is great news for further early detection.