Let's Beat Breast Cancer: Dr. Kristi Funk and Survivor Geraldine Adams Share How Everyday Choices Can Lower Your Risk with YourUpdateTV

The Let’s Beat Breast Cancer Campaign Aims to Raise Awareness for How Diet, Exercise, Alcohol, and Weight Can Affect Risk

NEW YORK, Sept. 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Most people assume breast cancer comes down to family history and bad luck – but the science says otherwise. While 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop breast cancer, only 5% to 10% of cases are linked to inherited genes like BRCA. That means up to 95% are shaped by factors a woman can actually influence: what she eats, how she moves, and how she lives.

Yet that lifesaving message rarely reaches the people who need it. In a national Physicians Committee/Morning Consult survey, more than 80% of women said no health care provider had ever discussed diet’s role in preventing breast cancer.

The Physicians Committee’s Let’s Beat Breast Cancer campaign aims to change that — with free rallies across the U.S. and around the world and a new PSA featuring tennis champion Venus Williams and Dr. Kristi Funk, will soon be playing in AMC theaters nationwide.

Renowned breast cancer surgeon Dr. Kristi Funk and survivor Geraldine Adams recently participated in a nationwide satellite media tour to share what everyone should know about lowering their risk. Here’s what they had to say:

What does the latest research tell us about the role lifestyle actually plays in breast cancer risk?

Dr. Kristi Funk: Genetics get far too much of the credit for causing breast cancer. In fact, only 5 to 10% of all breast cancer patients have an inherited gene mutation like BRCA or PALB2. For the other 90%, their cancers largely come from a complex mix of biology, hormones, environment, and lifetime exposures – most of which we have control over. So, while your DNA might write the first chapter of your cancer story, your daily choices about what to eat and drink, think and do, touch and breathe all dramatically influence how that story plays out.

How can a breast cancer diagnosis change your approach to health?

Geraldine Adams: It changed everything. In 2007, I was a busy mom and a full-time nurse working in a hospital when I went in for a routine mammogram. That mammogram showed three tumors in my breast, so I had a lot of surgery and medical treatment ahead of me. A year and a half later, I was diagnosed with a second cancer – endometrial cancer. I really had to dig deep and look at my lifestyle, because I couldn’t understand why my body was making so much cancer. Around that time, I saw an ad in my local paper for a Food for Life class on cancer prevention and preventing recurrence, and I thought, ‘This class was made for me.’ I went through the whole series. We heard the research, we had a wonderful instructor who explained how to get the nutrients that matter most on your plate, and at the end of each class we ate the food together. That had probably the biggest impact on my life and my survival – I think I’d be a whole lot heavier today if I hadn’t changed what I was doing.

What are the everyday habits that can actually lower breast cancer risk?

Dr. Kristi Funk: The science clearly points to four major habits that can maximally reduce breast cancer risk. The first is to eat a plant-based, low-fat, high-fiber diet rich in fruits and vegetables and whole grains like brown rice and oats, replacing animal proteins with plant sources such as lentils, beans, and tofu. Second, exercise regularly. Third, avoid alcohol. And fourth, maintain an ideal body weight. That’s the four-pronged approach behind the Let’s Beat Breast Cancer campaign, which encourages women and men to adopt these lifestyle changes to reduce their chances of getting breast cancer – or having it recur.

What do you hope people take away from your story?

Geraldine Adams: My hope is that people come away inspired. I tell my story, we take the classes, I share new information, and we make delicious food together. I want to inspire people to take that next step — to challenge themselves and say, ‘Yes, I’m going to try this and see how it works.’ If you jump in and give it a real try, you’ll feel better. People feel more energized, the weight comes off more easily than it ever did for me, and you’ll enjoy all the benefits of eating whole-food, plant-based.

Where can people go to learn more and get involved?

Dr. Kristi Funk: Simply go to LetsBeatBreastCancer.org. You’ll sign up completely free and immediately receive our starter guide to the four-pronged approach to beating breast cancer, our e-cookbook, and inspiring emails, resources, and invitations to our events — including drum rallies across the United States throughout September and October, where we come together to beat the drum and beat breast cancer. So go to LetsBeatBreastCancer.org and check it all out.

* YourUpdateTV is a property of D S Simon Media. The video included and release was part of a media tour that was produced by D S Simon Media on behalf of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Media Contact
Michael O’Donnell
D S Simon Media
212-736-2727
modonnell@dssimon.com

A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c0a2ee9d-319d-47a0-bb63-896852682322