They’ve recently discovered at the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium Laboratory that luminal progenitor cells…the so-called “daughters” of breast stem cells…are the more likely cause of these types of tumors.

This discovery will make it easier to develop new types of drugs and therapies to battle this type of breast cancer.  According to studies, women who carry the BRCA1 gene have roughly a 65% chance of developing breast cancer during their lifetime.

The study itself was made possible because of the many women having breast surgery who were willing to donate their breast tissue, as well as the surgeons and pathologists who were willing to support the project.  It’s this type of research that will give the next generation of breast cancer patients a new hope and possibly, a new life-saving alternative.

The study was published August 3, 2009 in the international journal Nature Medicine.

People shouldn’t have to choose between paying their bills or getting treatment for cancer. The American Cancer Society in Illinois is hoping that this new site will keep more people from having to make that kind of choice.

The site will provide information to assist people in better understanding their diagnosis, emotional support from cancer care specialists and cancer survivors, and practical day-to-day assistance to remove the barriers that may stand between the patient and their cancer treatment plan.

The services being offered include transportation assistance to treatments, discounted lodging at hotels for patients who need to travel to receive care, insurance coverage assistance, resource matching and referrals, and cosmetic help such as a free wig or headwear for patients who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy.

To find out more about the available resources and assistance options, patients can simply request a call or personal e-mail from a cancer care specialist.

Doctors and other health care professionals can also use the Web site to refer their patients to the Society’s Patient Navigation Services program or to locate relevant clinical trials.

Cancer patients also can order a free Personal Health Manager Kit at www.illinoiscancerhelp.org. The kit is an easy-to-use tool designed to help patients organize and keep track of diagnosis and treatment information, appointments, medication, test results, insurance, bills and various other logistical and practical details associated with fighting cancer.

The American Cancer Society will continue to offer cancer information and access to support groups via its call center at (800) 227-2345.

The study included over 4500 women between the ages of 34 and 64 from 5 metropolitan areas who were diagnosed with breast cancer, and found a 26% reduced risk of breast cancer among those who had a previous diagnosis of migraines.

Unlike the initial study, none of the women included in this study ever drank or smoked, nor did they take hormones. This suggests that the migraine link is the only factor that made a significant difference.

Scientists still don’t know exactly what it is about migraines that offers the The press release announcing the study points out that what remains unknown is how migraine confers its apparent protection against breast cancer. “We know that migraine is definitely related to hormones and that’s why we started looking at this in the first place,” Dr Li said. “We have different ideas about what may be going on but it’s unclear exactly what the biological mechanisms are.”

Dr Li’s research group is currently conducting a follow-up investigation and have submitted a third study for publication reporting that the link between migraines and reduced breast cancer risk remains despite the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

The study included 600 women with stage I, II, IIIA, or IIIB breast cancer. They were divided into two groups. The standard group was given a standard treatment consisting of either cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluouracil (CMF) or doxorubicin-cyclophosphaide. The control group was treated with only capecitabine.

The study found that those treated in the standard group had better results that those in the control group. Patients in the control group were twice as likely to relapse.

Studies of older women are very important, given that the average age of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer is 63. Another important step in these types of studies will be to find an effective oral medication for multi-drug treatments, due to the fact that patients tend to prefer oral chemotherapy over intravenous.

Aretha Rogers may lose the occasional game of monopoly. but she’s winning her battle against breast cancer.  “I kept my faith, my family kept praying, and I kept looking at the goal. there is a goal. That I was going to beat this.”

Even though African American women tend to get breast cancer less frequently than white women, those who do get it are often younger, and the disease tends to be more aggressive.  In additions, doctors are finding that minority women often don’t seek medical care as soon as they should.  “They may go in at a later stage, and the next thing you know, it’s more advanced, and then their opportunities for treatment are limited,” says Dr. Amber Isley.

It’s important for women to know that if caught early, breast cancer is curable. So spread the word that it’s ok to check your breasts, to go to the doctor, and to talk about breast cancer. The more women who know, the more survivors there will be.

HealthDay News has reported that a study has shown that women with high blood pressure, diabetes, insulin issues, or other types of metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance syndrome) may have an increased risk of breast cancer as well.

Metabolic syndrome consists as several conditions such as abdominal obesity, high blood glucose levels, impaired glucose tolerance, abnormal lipid levels and hypertension.

The study, which included 4,888 women, ages 50 to 79, who did not have diabetes at the start of the study. According to researcher Geoffrey C. Kabat, senior epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, the study shows that “women who had the metabolic syndrome during the three to five years prior to breast cancer diagnosis had roughly a doubling of risk.”

The study also found that high diastolic blood pressure (bottom number) alone was associated with more than a twofold increased risk, whereas elevated triglyceride and glucose levels were each associated with about 1.7 times increased risk.

Metabolic syndrome itself, which is associated with poor diet and lack of exercise, has already been shown to increase the risk for diabetes and heart disease.

For more information about the study, check out the July issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

One patient, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, a stomach tumor and arthritis, began feeling better after her first treatment. She received a second set of implants after six months. She had a mammogram done about three or four months after the second implant and found that she was cancer free.

Another patient (age 74), has been getting placenta implants twice a year since her diagnosis of breast cancer at age 64. She’s reporting that she’s had no colds or flu for the same 10 years or more and has lots of energy at the end of a full work day.

It’s known that about 5-10% of breast cancers are caused by gene mutations inherited from one’s mother or father. Women with these mutations have up to an 80% risk of developing breast cancer during their lifetime, and are often diagnosed before age 50.

However, about 90% of breast cancers are not attributed to a family history, but to the aging process and life in general causing these genetic abnormalities.

Even though stem cell treatment is at an early stage in breast cancer treatment, Karan Goel, chairman of Stem Cell Global Foundation is working on creating awareness about the technology.

In 2008, an estimated 182,460 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 67,770 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer. About 20-30% of these cases will be in woman with a family history of breast cancer.

For more information, contact:
Cell Global Foundation
India: +91-9779277776
USA :+1-877-824-2450
Europe: +44-203-004-9359
Email: info@scvi.in
Website: http://www.scvi.in ]]> http://by-debi.com/breast-cancer-articles/2009/06/30/stem-cells-not-just-curing-paralysis/feed/ http://by-debi.com/breast-cancer-articles/2009/06/18/avoid-mastectomyand-keep-your-job/ http://by-debi.com/breast-cancer-articles/2009/06/18/avoid-mastectomyand-keep-your-job/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:24:14 +0000 admin http://by-debi.com/breast-cancer-articles/?p=94 The first question is, what does my job have to do with my decision to have a mastectomy? The answer may be…quite a lot.

Breast cancer treatments in my grandma’s generation consisted of remove the breast and do radiation therapy. If it comes back, do chemotherapy. Well, as most women (and quite a few men nowadays) know, radiation therapy and chemotherapy both do a ton of damage to your good cells in your body, rather than just the bad.  That’s the bad news.

Nowadays, radiation therapy, while it still damages good cells, is becoming a much more focused technique. This reduces the amount of damage it does by focusing more exactly on the cancerous cells.  It has also been found that, due to this increased focus, a woman can have nearly an equal chance of survival with a lumpectomy and radiation, vs. having to have a full mastectomy, thereby allowing the breasts to be saved.

Women now have access to treatments that are less invasive than the old methods, and which allow faster recovery.  They can opt for a lumpectomy combined with radiation therapy and expect the same results as they would get from a total mastectomy.

So why are so many women who are being diagnosed with breast cancer (an estimated 212,920 cases expected in 2009 according to the American Cancer Society), still opting for a mastectomy and full breast removal?  About 64% of the estimated diagnosis are expected to be caught in the early localized stage, which makes them more treatable.  You might think it’s due to fear, but it’s been shown that it has more to do with whether they can afford to take time off work.

Radiation therapy typically consists of receiving daily treatments for six consecutive weeks in order to effectively reduce the risk of reoccurrence. This becomes a huge obstacle to many women. They have kids to raise, a home to run, and/or a job to attend to.  It can become emotionally draining to handle the radiation treatment effects in addition to the daily responsibilities of work and home. Some women also have an issue with getting to and from the treatment centers.

According to the National Institutes of Health, “Close to one-fifth of early stage breast cancer patients do not receive the recommended radiation treatment even after lumpectomy. In fact, the chance of a patient receiving radiation following surgery decreases 3 percent for every 5 mile increase in distance to a radiation treatment facility.”

So what’s the solution?

A new therapy called MammoSite Radiation Therapy System (RTS)* which allows early-stage breast cancer patients who are lumpectomy candidates to receive the necessary full six weeks of targeted radiation in only five days.

National Institutes of Health Cornwell states that “The procedure uses a balloon catheter to internally deliver radiation only to the area surrounding the original tumor, minimizing radiation exposure to the rest of the breast, skin, ribs, lungs and heart,” adds Cornwell. “The device targets radiation to the area where tumors are most likely to recur, while minimizing exposure to the remainder of the breast, chest and lungs.”

Dr. Cornwell is a member of the DeKalb Medical Society, Georgia Surgical Society and Atlanta Medical Association, and is on staff at DeKalb Medical Center. Cornwell has implanted two MammoSite catheters at Dekalb Surgical Associates, which recently began offering the procedure in early 2006. He was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society and completed his surgical residency at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta in June, 1998. He is board certified in general surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons F.A.C.S.

The Nasdaq traded company (CYTC) responsible for the design, manufacture, and marketing of the MammoSite Radiation Therapy System is Cytyc Corporation, located in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Their first inital clinical trial, which included 48 patients over a four-year period, showed that none of the patients experienced a recurrence after treatment with MammoSite. They presented their data and findings at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology meeting in October 2005.

Five years later, there was a follow-up study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study found that partial breast irradiation (PBI) using a similar technique to MammoSite RTS produces comparable results to conventional whole breast radiation therapy in preventing breast cancer recurrence in appropriately selected women treated with breast conservation therapy (BCT).

It’s important that women know about and learn about the results of these types of studies!  John Kennedy, M.D., a breast surgeon at DeKalb Surgical Associates* says that “Breast cancer patients are confronting difficult choices regarding their care at a very stressful time. MammoSite represents the next generation of internal radiation therapy, providing doctors and patients with a site-specific treatment option that dramatically reduces the duration of treatment. Women have been extremely pleased with completing their radiation therapy in only five days. The treatments usually begin just one week after surgery.”

Between new therapies, reduced time commitments, and early detection, some doctors believe up to 100,000 women a year could benefit from MammoSite.

* MammoSite RTS is a radiation therapy device cleared by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002.  To date, it’s been used to treat more than 16,000 women.

* DeKalb Surgical Associates is the first private practice in DeKalb County to offer patients with breast cancer the MammoSite Radiation Therapy System.

Reference:

MammoSite is available through the following centers in the Atlanta-area: Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Northside Hospital, DeKalb Surgical Associates, Piedmont Hospital, Southern Regional Medical Center and Emory Crawford Long Hospital. For up-to-date information regarding MammoSite RTS, please visit www.mammosite.com or call 1-86-MAMMOSITE (1-866-266-6748).

Resveratrol is an antioxidant that occurs naturally in the skins of red grapes, red wine, red or purple grape juice, cranberries, peanuts, and blueberries, and cranberries.  You can also find it in dietary supplements.

When used in test-tube studies, it’s keeping estrogen from causing breast cancer. This finding is huge considering that one of the major risk factors for breast cancer is prolonged exposure to estrogen. I know when my mom was diagnosed, she was said to estrogen-receptor-positive.  Somewhere along the line her body got out of balance and breast tumors were the end result.

Eleanor G. Rogan, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Nebraska show that resveratrol may be a way to stop this from happening. They’ve shown that resveratrol decreases the processing of estrogen into the  dangerous compounds that cause tumor growth, blocks interactions between estrogen metabolites and cellular DNA, and even increases production of an enzyme that destroys dangerous estrogen metabolites.

In a news release, Rogan stated that, “Resveratrol has the ability to prevent the first step that occurs when estrogen starts the process that leads to cancer.  We believe that this could stop the whole progression that leads to breast cancer down the road.”

Of course as we mentioned, these findings were done in a lab, so it’s still going to be quite some time before it’s proven that resveratrol can actually prevent cancer in women.

A definite plus though?  Resveratrol shows that it has anticancer effects at very low doses.

“This is dramatic because it was able to be done with fairly low concentrations of resveratrol,” Rogan says.

We’ve been hearing for many years now that it can be very beneficial to drink a glass of red wine every day to reduce breast cancer risk. Red wine has a resveratrol concentration between 9 and 28 micromoles per liter. According to the Rogan’s studies, a resveratrol concentration of 10 micromoles per liter was able to keep estrogen metabolites from interacting with DNA.

It should be mentioned however, that a 2007 study in the U.K. suggested that even very high doses of resveratrol don’t achieve blood concentrations as high as those needed for anticancer effects.

So, while many health claims are being made about resveratrol, the risks and benefits of taking this supplement haven’t been formally tested in clinical trials.