[rhondalea]

The answer to the questions of preventing breast cancer in the first place and preventing a recurrence of breast cancer is the same: "No one knows for sure, but these are the things research says might help."

Consider, for example, that some high-risk women are given tamoxifen to prevent a first occurrence of breast cancer. I have no idea and I don't think the researchers have any idea how to predict who will benefit--clearly, a woman who is destined to develop hormone negative cancer will not (or maybe she will)--but there are studies to demonstrate it does have a beneficial effect for some women.

Two birds with one stone--tamoxifen prevents first occurrence and it protects against recurrence. In some of us.

Becky mentioned above that the low-fat diet seemed to work best in triple negative women. Again, some of us. (And I still think it's all about the weight loss, but I've been wrong before.)

Believe me, if any of us knew what would work for all of us, she'd be right here posting about it. Well, actually, she'd probably be making headlines as the person who found the cure. But about all anyone can tell you is what she did as an individual that seems to have held the cancer at bay. AndiBB comes to mind--you can search for her list of supplements and information about her diet. There are other women here who have also beaten back metastatic cancer to remain NED (without further treatment), so they're probably closest to knowing what might work. The only problem, IMO, is that individual genetics will play a large enough part that emulating what someone else has done may not work for you.

For the metformin study, I was not tested for IGF-1, although additional blood samples were sent to the main study site, and I have no idea what the researchers tested for. The individual site researchers only test insulin and glucose (along with typical labs), so they don't know either. But we're all given either metformin or the placebo, and when they sort it out at the end, more information may be available. I just don't believe that they would have embarked on such a study if IFG-1 weren't a factor in the majority of breast cancers. (And not just breast cancers--metformin studies have been done with other cancers and the results have been good. I just haven't read those studies, so I don't know the specifics related to IGF-1.)

No one knows the answer, Spitfire. We just do the best we can and hope that it's enough.