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In 1993, the breast cancer that had plagued Jane Plant since 1987 returned for the fifth time. It came in the shape of a secondary tumour — a lump in her neck the size of half a boiled egg.

Doctors told her that she had only months to live.

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Then a mother of two young children, Plant recalls the shocked discussion she had with her husband, Peter. As scientists — she is a geochemist, he a geologist — they had both worked in China on environmental issues, and knew that Chinese women had historically very low rates of breast cancer: one epidemiological study from the ’70s showed the disease affected one in 100,000 Chinese women, compared with one in 12 in the West.

[np_storybar title=”High protein diet linked to spiked cancer risk akin to smoking 20 cigarettes a day: U.S. study” link=”http://life.nationalpost.com/2014/03/05/high-protein-diet-linked-to-spiked-cancer-akin-to-smoking-20-cigarettes-a-day-u-s-study/”]

Eating too much protein could be as dangerous as smoking for middle-aged people, a study has found.

Research which tracked thousands of adults for nearly 20 years found that those who eat a diet rich in animal protein are four times more likely to die of cancer than someone with a low-protein diet.