Breast Cancer – Problem Faced By Women

There was a time when Breast Cancer was termed to be as a dreaded disease. But things have changed now. If detected earlier, this could be easily treated. Removal of your breast during the treatment of breast cancer can be one of the painful things you would have to go through. It may not be the same case for all patients. With the increasing knowledge about the cures and treatment breast cancer can be treated very easily.

Breast cancer occurs when cell in our breasts known as tumor grow out of control causing damage to the nearby tissues and spreads throughout. These tumors which are cancerous are known as malignant tumors and cause lot of damage to your body. As it takes lot of time for a tumor to grow, it may not be easy to detect the tumor during self exam. But these can be detected with mammograms.

Breast cancers best treatment - early detection. Once, cancer is detected it becomes easier for the doctors and yourself to fight it out. By the age of 20 all women should start doing Breast Self Examination (BSE) it is one of most easiest and earliest ways of detecting cancer. These check ups should be done few days after your periods. You should do this check up at least once a month. A clinical breast exam should be done at least once a year.

Some of the signs to look for, while doing BSE

-A lump found in and around the nipple or underarm
-Change in size or shape
-Nipple discharge or nipple turning inward
-Redness of skin or warmth
-Formation of dimple or change in skin texture

Some of the causes of having breast cancer

Gender: Being a woman is one of the common reasons for suffering from breast cancer. Event though men suffer from this disease too, just being a woman puts you in lot of danger.

Age: As you grow older your chances of having breast cancer increases.

Family history: If somebody in the family has suffered from breast cancer your chances of having breast cancer increases.

Being overweight or obese: If you are an overweight women your chances of breast cancer increases after menopause.

Lack of exercise: Being lethargic and lack of any physical activity leads you towards increasing weight and chances of breast cancer

Alcohol: Drinking alcohol becomes very risky as it increases your chances of breast cancer

Methods to Prevent Breast Cancer

-Turn into a vegetarian
-Have plenty of organic food and vegetables
-Avoid red meat and any processed foods
-Avoid alcohol and colas
-You can have something sweet by having Stevia, an herb which is a substitute to any other toxic artificial sweetener
-Having whole grains is very good such as Oatmeal, Kamut and Psyllium, which are a good source of fiber and enters directly into your bloodstream
-Your diet must include wheat, bran and Cabbage as they are very nutritious food which helps to prevent breast cancer
-Garlic, Ginger, carrots, celery, cilantro, parsley and parsnip has some of the highest cancer fighting nutrients. Include them in your daily diet.

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Women and Lung Cancer: Researchers Look For Gender Connection. Female Cancer Patients Sought For Large-Scale Clinical Trial

According to a recent survey on health concerns, women fear breast cancer most. Despite the fears expressed in the survey, conducted by the International Communications Research of Media for the Society of Women's Health Research in 2005, lung cancer is actually the leading cancer killer of women. Lung cancer takes the lives of approximately 68,000 women each year.

While smoking is the biggest risk factor for lung cancer, there is growing evidence that points to gender differences in the risk of developing lung cancer and the implications for treating the disease in men and women.

For example, while the number of men diagnosed with lung cancer has been going down, the number of women has risen 60 percent since 1990. In addition, women who are nonsmokers are 2.5 times more likely to develop lung cancer than men who are nonsmokers.

Scientific evidence points to estrogen as a factor in the difference between how lung cancer acts in men versus women. That biological difference promises to have important implications for lung cancer treatments.

It is believed that the estrogen in women may influence lung tumor growth by causing the synthesis of tumor-promoting proteins. Since women have higher levels of estrogen than men, and younger women have higher levels of estrogen than older women, this may in part be responsible for their higher risk for nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Developing therapies that are favorably influenced by estrogen may provide a gender-targeted therapeutic approach to the treatment of the disease.

Researchers are currently studying a novel approach to targeting lung cancer in women that relies on a chemotherapy agent that exploits the presence of estrogen in women and its effect on the metabolism of proteins in the cancer cell. Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) developed XYOTAX (paclitaxel poliglumex) initially as a lung cancer drug for all patients-regardless of gender. Retrospective analysis of two Phase III clinical trials found the drug, as compared to standard chemotherapy treatments, had a significant survival advantage in women while having equivalent survival in men.

New clinical trial

Now, Cell Therapeutics is embarking on another clinical study exclusively in women to see if the theory proves true in a larger population of women. The trial, known as PIONEER, is the first approval trial for lung cancer exclusively targeting women and is expected to enroll 600 patients with advanced lung cancer.

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