How the environment impacts breast cancer, with Dr. Mary Beth Terry

While much of the focus around breast cancer rightfully looks at preexisting genetics, an important part of finding a cure also means looking at what's happening outside the body, specifically the environment. How does the air we breathe and chemicals we ingest every day potentially put us more at risk for the disease? What can be done to prevent it? As you'll hear, the work is a blend of intensely modern science and old-fashioned, hard-nosed research.

Dr. Mary Beth Terry is a cancer epidemiologist and professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Terry's work centers on improving breast cancer risk models for high-risk families, finding ways to measure exposure to chemical pollutants, and non-genetic changes to DNA that can be a result of both biologic and environmental exposures. She's also a BCRF grantee since 2005.

How might our daily environment impact the potential for breast cancer? That's what I asked Dr. Terry.