Now, a leading breast cancer expert and women’s health advocate, Susan Love, M.D., is recruiting 1 million healthy women to help find the answers to those crucial questions, asking them to volunteer for breast cancer studies.

“We can’t learn what causes cancer just by studying diseased tissue,” Love said in an interview with AARP Bulletin Today. “We need to study healthy women and compare them to women with cancer to figure out what causes cancer.”

In a groundbreaking initiative, the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation have just launched the Army of Women website, where they hope a million healthy women of all ages and ethnicities will sign up to participate in breast cancer studies. Since the site was unveiled at the beginning of the month, more than 200,000 women have registered there.

Signing up does not commit a woman to a specific study. Women who register agree only to consider participating in studies. Referring to a popular online dating service, Love says, “We’re like the eHarmony of breast cancer research, matching women with scientists.” And like at eHarmony, she says, “you don’t have to date every match. All we ask is that you take a look.” All projects are thoroughly vetted before researchers can recruit through the site.

A top breast cancer surgeon in California, Love is known to millions of American women through her best-selling books on breast cancer and women’s health. She was among the first scientists to publicly link hormone replacement therapy to an increased risk of breast cancer, an early stand that was highly controversial—until a major national study conclusively proved the link.

Love is warm, empathetic and direct when she discusses this frightening cancer, pointing out that while 5 to 10 percent of women with specific gene mutations have a high risk of developing breast cancer, 70 percent of all women who get breast cancer have no known risk factors. “They do everything right, have no family history and still get this cancer,” Love says. “That tells us we do not know what causes this disease. And I think the time has come to find out.”