Breast cancer study includes former Lejeune residents

A new study on breast cancer and environmental causes weighed the input of two breast cancer survivors formerly from Camp Lejeune.

The study, requested by the Susan G. Komen foundation and undertaken by the Institute of Medicine, will review standards for identifying and measuring cancer risk factors; review scientific research on the relationship between breast cancer and the environment; and consider potential interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors. It will also consider actions that could be taken to reduce risk, review challenges, and develop recommendations for future research, according to information from IOM.

Former Lejeune residents Mike Partain and Jim Fontella, both survivors of male breast cancer they believe was caused by high levels of contaminants in the base’s drinking water, offered perspectives from their experience Wednesday during a public comment period of a two-day meeting held in Washington, D.C.

Fontella, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, was stationed at Camp Lejeune from 1966-67 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 at age 53.

He shared his experience with the committee by phone from Shelby Township, Mich., he said, because the story of the 55 male breast cancer survivors with ties to Camp Lejeune needed to be told.

Based on statistical occurrence of male breast cancer, Fontella said, with Camp Lejeune residents “the numbers are totally out of line.”

“There should be four to five people, max,” he said, “and there’s 55 people there.”

Fontella said he also hoped to bring awareness to the issue of male breast cancer, which he said was not featured in any of the Komen Foundation’s printed materials, and encourage the foundation to use its influence to exhort the Marine Corps in finding answers for Lejeune veterans and their families.

Partain, of Talahassee, Fla., was born on the base in 1968 and diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 39. He said he had serious concerns about the methods and evidence the study would use.

The literature review planned by IOM, he said, would collate and compare conclusions from previous research done using a variety of methods, and, in the case of Camp Lejeune, some done by organizations with economic ties to the Department of Defense.

“I’ve got some really big concerns with what they’re doing, because the ways they’re going about it are inconclusive by design,” he said.

Christine Stencel, a spokeswoman for IOM, said the 20-month study would involve a comprehensive search of scientific databases to collate all research done on breast cancer and environmental causes, with special weight given to randomized control trials.

“That’s kind of the gold standard,” she said.

In 2009, the National Research Council, which, like IOM, falls under the United States National Academies, released a literature review-based study finding that no conclusive tie could be drawn between contamination of Camp Lejeune water with chemical solvents and benzene from the 1950s through the mid-1980s, and a host of diseases afflicting former residents.

Soon after, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry decided to move forward with further research, planning a number of original studies including water modeling, infant mortality studies and a health survey of former residents.

Partain said he was glad to see the study undertaken.

But, he added, “I’m really concerned about these type of committees, especially after what we’re seen at Camp Lejeune.”