New DVD on Breast Self Examination now available
A new Breast Self Examination video on DVD, incorporating actors and animation, now available at www.safetouchsheets.com
A new Breast Self Examination video on DVD, incorporating actors and animation, now available at www.safetouchsheets.com
1. Reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Continue reading "Vaccine Reduces Recurrence, Death in Patient with HER2 Breast Cancer" »
A. Results reported at the annual conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network
B. The previous guidelines distinguished between the majority of women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and the small subset of women with very small DCIS (<.5cm), unicentric, and of low grade.
C.The women with very small DCIS were treated with lumpectomy alone without irradiation. All other women with DCIS were treated with total mastectomy without lymph node disection or by lumpectomy plus irradiation.
Continue reading "Surgery without Irradiation now an option for DCIS" »
1. Meta-analyasis of 3 observational studies presented to a med conference in San Diego, CA
2. "A serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of 30 mg/mL or higher was associated with at least a 50% lowering of breast cancer." (Dr. Cedric Garland)
3. Study authors suggest that women should have their Vitamin D levels checked yearly
4. "We're confident that we can prevent half of the breast cancer in women in the United States, if we raise the serum vitamin D levels to 32 ng/mL."
5. To reach a level of 32 ng/mL, it would take 2,000 IU/day in New York and probably 1,000 IU/day in San Diego.
Continue reading "Vitamin D May Prove Protective Against Breast Cancer " »
From the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
1. Through a series of modest gains in breast cancer screening plus advances in endocrine therapy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy breast cancer mortality in women 35-69yrs has been almost halved in the US and Britian.
2. Although each improvement in breast cancer care has added only a small improvement in survival, taken together, the improvement has been remarkable.
3. The data show that chemotherapy is equally effective in women with and without estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
Continue reading "Breast Cancer Leads Mortality Drop in the US and Britian" »
The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
With the decline in breast cancer deaths has come the increase in treatment related symptoms
The focus of the talk was evidence based treatments of the 5 most common breast cancer related issue;
Vaginal dryness
Fatigue
Chemotherapy related neuropathy
Diminished libido
Hot Flashes
Continue reading "Treatment Pearl for Common Breast Cancer Related Symptoms" »
1. As reported in Family Practice News, Jan 15, 2008.
Continue reading "Lifetime Cancer Risk is High in Unaffected BRCA Carriers" »
1. As reported in Family Practice News, January 15,2008
2. Midterm report of the Dutch MRI Screening Study, as reported at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
3. A radomized study of the utility of mammography and MRI in screening women at increased risk breast cancer, involving 2,177 Dutch women, begun in 1999. Median follow up at the time of this report is 5.3 yrs.
4. The protocol is for clinical breast examination every 6 months with yearly MRI and mammography at the same visit. The participants were encouraged to perform self breast examinations.
Continue reading "BRCA1 Carriers May Require More Frequent Imaging" »
A. From the Journal of the American Medical Association as reported in the Wall Street Journal
B. The study was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.
C. Researchers interviewed and tested 1,400 women with cancer in one breast and 700 women with cancer in both breasts, who carried the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.
Continue reading "Genetic Mutation Less of a Risk Factor for Breast Cancer than once thought" »
1. From San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
2. A report of the Oxford based Early Breast Cancer Trialist's Collaboration (EBCTCG) which reported on 350,000 women in over 400 randomized clinical trials.
3. Early breast cancer in women from 35 to 69 yrs has decreased by half since 1990.
4. Credit for the decline has been given to breast cancer screening, endocrine therapy, chemotherapy, and irradiation.
Continue reading "Breast Cancer Deaths decrease by half from 1990" »
A Report from the Radiological Society of North America on the Amer College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN)6666 study;
1. A multicenter study of 2,637 women at high risk for breast cancer.
2. High risk was defined as a personal history of breast cancer (53%), familial high risk (42%), prior atypical ductal hyperplasia, atypical lobualr hyperplasia, lobular carcinoma in situ, or atypical papilloma (3%), BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations (1%), or prior mediastinal/chest radiation therapy (1%)
Continue reading "Ultrasound Breast Cancer Screening, Not ready for Prime Time" »
A Report from the Radiological Society of North America on the Amer College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN)6666 study;
1. A multicenter study of 2,637 women at high risk for breast cancer.
2. High risk was defined as a personal history of breast cancer (53%), familial high risk (42%), prior atypical ductal hyperplasia, atypical lobualr hyperplasia, lobular carcinoma in situ, or atypical papilloma (3%), BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations (1%), or prior mediastinal/chest radiation therapy (1%)
Continue reading "Ultrasound Breast Cancer Screening, Not ready for Prime Time" »
A Report from the Radiological Society of North America on the Amer College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN)6666 study;
1. A multicenter study of 2,637 women at high risk for breast cancer.
2. High risk was defined as a personal history of breast cancer (53%), familial high risk (42%), prior atypical ductal hyperplasia, atypical lobualr hyperplasia, lobular carcinoma in situ, or atypical papilloma (3%), BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations (1%), or prior mediastinal/chest radiation therapy (1%)
Continue reading "Ultrasound Breast Cancer Screening, Not ready for Prime Time" »
A retrospective study from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program Database;
1. DCIS, Ductal Carcinoma in Situ, is often considered a precancer that has the potential to become an invasive cancer over time.
2. The two treatments for this condition have been;
a. Total mastectomy sometimes followed by tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor for women who are not considered candidates for radiation therapy
b. Breast conserving surgery followed by irradiation with or without tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor.
3. The data base, for this study, included 27,728 women who underwent total mastectomy and 25,240 women who underwent breast conserving surgery.
Continue reading "Breast-Conserving Therapy is as Effective as Mastectomy in DCIS" »
As reported in the Wall Street Journal 1/4/08;
1. Tailoring cancer therapy to the specific patient and their cancer has been considered a break through.
2. Herceptin is a drug for the treatment of breast cancer that targets the breast cancers of women who test positve for a protein called Her-2.
3. So knowing whether your cancer is Her-2 positive or negative can determine your treatment.
4. Another test tests for the presence of proteins that serve as the receptors of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. If the test is positive, drugs like Tamoxifen can be prescribed to block the hormones.
5. Unlike many other tests that are either positive or negative, the test for Her-2 and estrogen receptors require the pathologist to make a judgement call after looking at a sample of the tissue through a microscope.
6. Another key issue surfaces with these reviews and it is that the FDA does not actually review laboratories and the tests that they do/develop as well as it evaluates new drugs. (In fairness, it must be said that the laboratories do have proficiency requirements to meet to keep their licenses. It is just that they have considerable freedom to 'tweak' the procedures without regulatory approval )
Continue reading "Labs testing Breast Cancer Samples make more mistakes than we thought" »
1. This was an effort to form clinical practice guidelines for the American College of Physicians
2. The data base was English-language articles identified in multiple electronic data bases through 2005.
3. The authors searched for literature on the effects of screening mammography on breast cancer mortality rates and breast cancer treatment.; the risks of screening mammography, including radiation, overdiagnosis, and false-positive results.
4. The initial search revealed 873 full-text articles with 117 articles meeting their standards for relavance and quality.
Continue reading "Does Screening Mammography Benefit Women in their 40's?" »
1. From Ramon Parsons of Columbia University
Continue reading "Why the BRCA-1 Gene increases the Risk of Breast Cancer" »
1. From Dr. Mary Daly of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philipelphia
2. The genes in question are BRCA-1 and BRCA-2.
3. About 2,030 cases of male breast cancer are predicted to occur this year, accounting for 1% of all breast cancer cases. About 450 cases will be fatal.
1. Dr. Irene Wapnir has analyzed two studies involving the impact of adding radiation therapy, with or without tamoxifen, on survival rates of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) or same side recurrence of the tumor.
2. In one study, 813 women received lumpectomy alone or lumpectomy plus irradiation.
3. In the second study, 1,802 women received lumpectomy plus irradiation or lumpectomy plus irradiation followed by tamoxifen.
Continue reading "Radiation and Hormonal Therapy Increase Survival in Women with DCIS" »
1. United Kingdom Standardization of Breast Radiotherapy (START) trials explored a more convenient dosing schedule for breast irradiation following breast cancer surgery, with a lower total dose of irradiation.
2. Two studies with a total of 4,500 women participatants receiving either 25 treatments over 5 weeks or 15 treatments over 3 weeks.
1. From the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Continue reading "Lavender may have an effect as a Cancer Fighter" »
1. 1. From a study involving the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Georgia.
2. Reported in the Journal of American Psychological Association
Continue reading "Attitude Makes a Difference in Cancer Survival" »
1. As reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
2. Researchers from Creighton University in Omaha enrolled 1.179 women aged 55 or older with no history of cancer.
3. The women were given calcium alone, calcium with Vit D, or placebo for 4 years.
4. Women taking calcium alone had some benefit of decreased breast cancer, but, women taking calcium with
Vit D reduced the risk of developing breast cancer by more than three quarters.
Continue reading "Staying out of the sun can increase your risk of breast cancer" »
1. It has been held amongst breast cancer researchers that the reason black women were more likely to die of breast cancer was the discrepancy in quallity of care. Black women get fewer mamograms, tend to have their breast cancers discovered when they have already spread, and they may receive less aggressive treatment.
2. Recent research has discovered that black women are still more likely to die of breast cancer, when all other factors are held constant.
A. From the Journal of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Dec 2006 pp 1354-60
B. Study involving Finnish women using a synthetic estrogen, Estradiol, either orally or transdermally
Continue reading "What are the Breast Cancer Risks from using Replacement Hormones" »