"
I'm Katherine Reeves and I'm an associate
professor of epidemiology at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst.
So I'm a breast cancer epidemiologist and
my goal is on ultimately preventing breast
cancer.
And I search for ways that are modifiable
risk factors so thinking beyond genetics which
we know are important but, what can women
do themselves to prevent breast cancer from
happening.
So I'm looking at things currently that are
in our environment.
Things like BPA or thaliates that there's
some reason to believe that they could affect
breast cancer risk but we're really not certain.
And so my research is hoping to answer those
questions so that we can have women modify
their behavior or have, you know, legislative
or advocacy solutions that might in turn reduce
the number of women getting breast cancer
in our country.
I grew up in southeastern Connecticut.
My parents maybe weren't scientists per se,
but certainly were in kind of related fields.
My mother was a nurse and she worked in an
OB-GYN wards but then stayed with, stayed
home with, myself and my brothers.
And then my father was an engineer, spent
20 years on nuclear submarines with the Navy
and then retired and worked as a defense contractor
for a number of years and then currently works
as kind of an industrial engineer for a medical
products manufacturing company.
And I, like I said, I always loved science
and I, I don't think I ever seriously considered
doing anything that didn't somehow involve
science and math.
So the types of projects that I'm most interested
in now are more looking at environmental factors
for breast cancer but there really aren't
human studies out there for a variety of reasons.
One is that it's a really tough thing to study
so while we're constantly exposed to these
chemicals our bodies are actually pretty good
at getting rid of them.
And so if I, you know, took a sample from
someone today and measured what their BPA
exposure was, it could look really different
from what their exposure is tomorrow or the
next day because your exposure changes from
day to day.
So it's been a really kind of fun challenge
to figure out, you know, how do I study this
to get not just an answer but the right answer
and the most ethologicaly sound answer.
I really pride myself on going into it as
a scientist and I don't have an agenda except
that I want the right answer wherever that
falls and so my job as a scientist is to design
the most rigorous study that I can and a study
where when I get the answer I'll believe the
answer.
And if it turns out that these products really
don't affect breast cancer risk, then, you
know, I'm actually a little bit happier with
that because we're all exposed and that's
kind of an easier answer to accept.
If it turns out that's not the case then I
think it's important to know that so we can
do some things to reduce our exposure or somehow
mitigate the effects of that exposure.
I think I could of been a good doctor.
I don't think I would of enjoyed it the way
that I enjoy this field.
I kind of know myself and I think ultimately
I did find the right path and that's one of
the things I really like about my current
position is that I get to teach.
And I get to teach undergraduates and when
I was in college undergraduate, epidemiology,
and public health didn't exist.
And so it's really wonderful.
It's something that attracted me to U of MASS,
Amherst as faculty, was that we do this great
undergraduate program and it's really fulfilling
and just wonderful to work with a lot of these
students and, you know, expose them to epidemiology
at a much younger age than I was and to really
get them excited about it.
Cause I think, you know, my long term vision
for my research is really to reduce breast
cancer morbidity.
Certainly it's a very survivable disease nowadays
because of the great work people have done
both in early detection and also treatment
and that's really wonderful.
But I think most breast cancer survivors will
tell you they'd rather not have had the disease
at all and, you know, as a woman myself, and
as the mother of two young daughters, I'd
really like see a world where breast cancer
is truly truly a rare condition and that we're
not, we're not all affected by it.
I think most, if not all of us, could think
of someone that we know or someone that we're
related to or love very much that has been
affected by this disease and, you know, my
goal is to, is to really reduce that and hopefully
to do it by finding ways that women themselves
can be empowered to reduce their own risk
either by screening or by, you know, reducing
their exposures to certain things that could
increase breast cancer risk."
