Woman wonders if cellphone stored in bra caused her breast cancer
Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Lancaster New Era
Updated Sep 30, 2013 17:30
Strasburg Township
By CINDY STAUFFER
Staff Writer
cstauffer@lnpnews.com
Staff Writer
cstauffer@lnpnews.com
Tiffany Frantz carried her cellphone in her bra for several years, all day, every day. That way, she easily could feel it vibrate, signaling a text or a call, and she didn't have to worry about carrying it in her pockets or a purse.
It was very convenient.
It also might have been very toxic.
At the age of 21, Frantz, of Strasburg Township, was diagnosed with breast cancer, on the same side where she carried her phone, in the same area where it nestled against her breast.
Frantz will tell her story on "Dr. Oz" in a program to be broadcast sometime this fall. She's also one of four young women featured in a small case study on cellphones and breast cancer recently published in a national journal.
The young woman, her oncologist and another local oncologist can't be sure there is a definite correlation between cellphones and breast cancer until more research is performed.
They urge that research should be done very soon.
In the meantime, they also urge other young women not to do what Frantz did.
"I think it should be studied, so if it is, it can help other people," says Frantz, now 23 and working as a bank teller and a server at a local restaurant.
Dr. Randall Oyer, Frantz's local oncologist, no longer even carries his own cellphone in his pants pocket.
"I never really thought about it until I met Tiffany," says Oyer, who is with Lancaster General Health Physicians Hematology & Medical Oncology.
"I take it very seriously," he says of the possible link between her cancer and her cellphone. "I'm very concerned about it. For now, the message needs to be: Don't put your cellphone in your bra. Don't put it close to your body.
"And let's get the scientific research to answer the question, one way or another."
Frantz first found a lump in her breast in 2011. She learned she had stage 1 breast cancer.
"They were surprised because of my age," she says. "I was devastated, and surprised too. You know cancer is out there, but you don't think it's going to happen to you."
Doctors thought at first that she might carry a gene that predisposed her to breast cancer, but the cancer does not run in her family and genetic testing at Lancaster General Hospital came up negative.
Frantz ended up having her breast removed in March 2012 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, followed by radiation treatment.
In February of this year, doctors found that her breast cancer had spread to her hip. Tests also showed lesions on her skull, ribs, pelvic bone and spine.
The tumor on her hip had progressed to the point that it had eaten away some of the bone, so she had a plate installed.
She also underwent radiation again, and regularly takes a pill and undergoes an intravenous bone-building treatment.
"I feel good," she says. "I feel normal."
Oyer, who is speaking about Frantz's condition with her approval, said doctors can't automatically assume that Frantz's cellphone caused her cancer.
"A lot more observational work needs to be done," he says. "We want to be careful that we don't miss any early cues, but we also don't want to create an unwarranted health alarm."
Careful research is needed, he says.
Large-scale studies already have shown that cellphone use is not associated with brain cancer, said Dr. Brian Calabrese, an oncologist who is with Lancaster Hematology Oncology Care.
But your brain is protected by a hard case, namely your skull, which could protect it from any problems, doctors say. A young woman's developing breast does not have that shield.
The Environmental Health Trust, a nonprofit group that provides education about environmental health risks, recently cited a cellphone/breast cancer report in "Case Reports in Medicine," a peer-reviewed, open-access journal.
The report featured four women, ages 21 to 39, including Frantz, who got breast cancer in the same spot where they had been carrying their cellphones in their bras. Further research is "urgently needed" on this topic, one of the report's authors said.
Frantz's case also recently caught the attention of the "Dr. Oz" television show, which brought her and her mother, Traci, to New York for a brief interview on the topic. The segment has not yet been scheduled, a show spokeswoman said.
Until more research is done, it's wise to heed cellphone manuals, which advise people to keep their phones a short distance from their bodies, Calabrese says.
As for Frantz, she notices from time to time women carrying their phones in their bras. She doesn't say anything unless she knows them, because she doesn't have any solid science to offer them.
"But if it was a friend," she says, "I would probably say, 'There might be a possibility that my cellphone caused my cancer, and you might want to get that phone out of your bra.' "
It was very convenient.
It also might have been very toxic.
At the age of 21, Frantz, of Strasburg Township, was diagnosed with breast cancer, on the same side where she carried her phone, in the same area where it nestled against her breast.
Frantz will tell her story on "Dr. Oz" in a program to be broadcast sometime this fall. She's also one of four young women featured in a small case study on cellphones and breast cancer recently published in a national journal.
The young woman, her oncologist and another local oncologist can't be sure there is a definite correlation between cellphones and breast cancer until more research is performed.
They urge that research should be done very soon.
In the meantime, they also urge other young women not to do what Frantz did.
"I think it should be studied, so if it is, it can help other people," says Frantz, now 23 and working as a bank teller and a server at a local restaurant.
Dr. Randall Oyer, Frantz's local oncologist, no longer even carries his own cellphone in his pants pocket.
"I never really thought about it until I met Tiffany," says Oyer, who is with Lancaster General Health Physicians Hematology & Medical Oncology.
"I take it very seriously," he says of the possible link between her cancer and her cellphone. "I'm very concerned about it. For now, the message needs to be: Don't put your cellphone in your bra. Don't put it close to your body.
"And let's get the scientific research to answer the question, one way or another."
Frantz first found a lump in her breast in 2011. She learned she had stage 1 breast cancer.
"They were surprised because of my age," she says. "I was devastated, and surprised too. You know cancer is out there, but you don't think it's going to happen to you."
Doctors thought at first that she might carry a gene that predisposed her to breast cancer, but the cancer does not run in her family and genetic testing at Lancaster General Hospital came up negative.
Frantz ended up having her breast removed in March 2012 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, followed by radiation treatment.
In February of this year, doctors found that her breast cancer had spread to her hip. Tests also showed lesions on her skull, ribs, pelvic bone and spine.
The tumor on her hip had progressed to the point that it had eaten away some of the bone, so she had a plate installed.
She also underwent radiation again, and regularly takes a pill and undergoes an intravenous bone-building treatment.
"I feel good," she says. "I feel normal."
Oyer, who is speaking about Frantz's condition with her approval, said doctors can't automatically assume that Frantz's cellphone caused her cancer.
"A lot more observational work needs to be done," he says. "We want to be careful that we don't miss any early cues, but we also don't want to create an unwarranted health alarm."
Careful research is needed, he says.
Large-scale studies already have shown that cellphone use is not associated with brain cancer, said Dr. Brian Calabrese, an oncologist who is with Lancaster Hematology Oncology Care.
But your brain is protected by a hard case, namely your skull, which could protect it from any problems, doctors say. A young woman's developing breast does not have that shield.
The Environmental Health Trust, a nonprofit group that provides education about environmental health risks, recently cited a cellphone/breast cancer report in "Case Reports in Medicine," a peer-reviewed, open-access journal.
The report featured four women, ages 21 to 39, including Frantz, who got breast cancer in the same spot where they had been carrying their cellphones in their bras. Further research is "urgently needed" on this topic, one of the report's authors said.
Frantz's case also recently caught the attention of the "Dr. Oz" television show, which brought her and her mother, Traci, to New York for a brief interview on the topic. The segment has not yet been scheduled, a show spokeswoman said.
Until more research is done, it's wise to heed cellphone manuals, which advise people to keep their phones a short distance from their bodies, Calabrese says.
As for Frantz, she notices from time to time women carrying their phones in their bras. She doesn't say anything unless she knows them, because she doesn't have any solid science to offer them.
"But if it was a friend," she says, "I would probably say, 'There might be a possibility that my cellphone caused my cancer, and you might want to get that phone out of your bra.' "
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/900354_Woman-wonders-if-cellphone-stored-in-bra-caused-her-breast-cancer.html#ixzz2gWFd5Sba
This is tragic for so young a woman to endure this type of cancer, surgery and spread to other sites in her body. Weren't there earlier news reports that the breast tumors closely resembled the outline of cellphone in location that she carried it in her bra? Let us all pay heed to possible microwave radiofrequency dangers. In the meantime, let us all wish peace and health to Tiffany and her family.
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