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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Forget the cure for cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer, or diabetes. Unless …

If you want a cure for cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer, or diabetes, don't count on the academia, the National Institute of Health (NIH), or the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. With all the money they have spent on researching these diseases, they have very little to show for it.

In 1971, during the State of the Union address, President Nixon declared the war on cancer proposing "an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer." Since 1971, Americans spent, through taxes, donations, and private R&D, about $200 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars. This money produced 1.56 million papers on cancer. Yet, today we are no closer to a cure than we were in 1971. Why?

Consider what Dr. Almog said in his paper: Drug Industry in "depression" (Almog, D. Drug industry in "depression". Med Sci Monit. 2005 Jan;11(1):SR1-4, I would urge you to read his paper, it's an eye opener on relationship between academic research and commercial drug discovery): "When the basic science/biology of disease is not available, no new drugs come to market." With the billion of dollars spent by the NIH on basic science, and the millions of papers published on the topic, the question is, "Why isn’t the basic science/biology of disease available? Individual discoveries in the biology of human disease are cornerstone in new treatments. However, in drug discovery, these basic science/biology discoveries are seemingly unrelated dots. To connect the dots you need a theory. The Blind Men and the Elephant is a famous story about six blind men encountering an elephant for the first time. Each man, seizing on the single feature of the animal, which he appeared to have touched first, and being incapable of seeing it whole, loudly maintained his limited opinion on the nature of the beast. The elephant was considered a wall, a spear, a snake, a tree, a fan or a rope, depending on whether the blind men had first grasped the creature’s side, tusk, trunk, knee, ear or tail. The story epitomizes the problem of the reductionist approach in biology. A recent book Microcompetition with Foreign DNA and the Origin of Chronic Disease, by Hanan Polansky [11], presents an alternative. The book identifies the disruption that causes atherosclerosis, cancer, obesity, osteoarthritis, type II diabetes, alopecia, type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, asthma, lupus, thyroiditis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, graft versus host disease, and other chronic diseases, and describes the sequence of events that leads from the disruption to the molecular, cellular, and clinical effects."

What are the implications of the NIH failure? A decline in the number of new drugs introduced by pharmaceutical companies. Consider what professor Taylor says in his paper: Fewer new drugs from the pharmaceutical industry (Taylor D. Fewer new drugs from the pharmaceutical industry. BMJ. 2003 Feb 22;326(7386):408-9): "In 2002 spending on medicines exceeded $400bn (£248bn; 377bn) worldwide. Optimists in the pharmaceutical industry believe that the global market for their products will go on expanding by around 10% a year, with the United States continuing to lead towards higher per capita outlays. Expenditure on research by the pharmaceutical industry is also increasing worldwide. It is now over $45bn a year---twice the sum recorded at the start of the 1990s---and projected to rise to $55bn by 2005-6. Concerns are growing, however, about the productivity of research being funded by the major pharmaceutical companies. ... Empirical evidence indicates a crisis in productivity in pharmaceutical research. The number of medicines introduced worldwide that contain new active ingredients dropped from an average of over 60 a year in the late 1980s to 52 in 1991 and only 31 in 2001. The overall number of new active substances undergoing regulatory review is still falling."

On the one hand, the expenditure on research is increasing. On the other, the number of new drugs is decreasing. The professionals call this situation the productivity crisis in drug discovery.

The NIH failed to produce the so much needed biology of chronic disease because it is caught in the reductionist mentality. Dr. Hanan Polansky offers an alternative. If we want a cure for cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer, or diabetes, we need to seriously consider his alternative.

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Research Results In New Drugs And Cancer Treatments

There may be new hope for many cancer patients, their caregivers and loved ones.

That's because America's research-based pharmaceutical companies are today developing nearly 400 new medicines to treat cancer, according to a survey of ongoing research conducted by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

Many of the medicines now in development represent potential breakthrough cancer treatments, while others involve possible new uses for existing medicines.

The medicines in development are all either in clinical trials or under review by the Food and Drug Administration. They include:

• 62 for lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the United States;

• 49 for breast cancer, which is expected to strike more than 200,000 American women this year;

• 50 for prostate cancer, which is expected to kill more than 30,000 American men this year; and

• 35 for colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer in both men and women in the U.S.

Other potential medicines target kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, skin cancer, ovarian cancer and others. In addition, companies are working on new treatments to improve the quality of life for people undergoing cancer treatment.

"Anyone fighting cancer or anyone who has beaten it knows the importance of these medicines and this research," said Billy Tauzin, PhRMA president and CEO who is also a cancer survivor. "Sometimes, the hope that one of these new medicines will work for you is what keeps you fighting the disease."

Recent cancer research efforts have resulted in several new treatments. For example, a medicine to treat metastatic colorectal cancer is the first treatment approved that prevents the formation of new blood vessels that provide tumors with oxygen and nutrients. There's also a medicine for the treatment of nonsmall-cell lung cancer that inhibits the formation and growth of tumor cells.

Research into possible new cancer cures and treatments is today being conducted by as many as 178 biopharmaceutical companies as well as by the National Cancer Institute.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America represents the country's leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies.

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Breast Cancer Treatment: Surviving Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a word that strikes fear into most of our hearts. We've seen the movies and heard such horrible stories about undergoing this difficult treatment for a disease that could very well kill us. I underwent chemo for breast cancer and know that, in some cases, the cancer isn't hard … it isn't painful … it doesn't make us sick. That's the case for most of us who have breast cancer, but don't have distant metastases. But then, they say we need to do chemo and we know we'll feel that.

Although chemo drugs haven't changed that much, and they're still terribly hard on our bodies, the management drugs have changed a lot. Chemotherapy, for many of us, isn't the show-stopper we thought it would be. Of course, each of us is different and the chemo drugs affect each of us in different ways, but, for the most part, chemo is definitely doable.

My breast cancer was Stage IIIa, with a 5.8 cm tumor, 8 of 10 lymph nodes positive, and I was only 39 years old. That bought me a ticket for the chemo ride. And I was scared out of my wits. But, I found an online breast cancer support group, at WebMD, and those women told me everything to expect and more. I went through four rounds of adriamycin and cytoxan. Both of them are some pretty stout breast cancer chemo drugs. After that, I did a controversial treatment that involved extremely high doses of cytoxan, taxol, and cisplatin, so I learned quite a bit about surviving chemotherapy.

First of all, I would highly recommend getting a port. This is a line that goes into a vein in your chest, the entrance to which sits just under your skin, right below your collarbone. It requires a quick surgery to put it in but, if you're having a mastectomy for your breast cancer, you can get the chemo port put in at the same time. If you choose not to do that, you'll have to get your chemo treatments through your veins and chemo is really hard on your veins. This means that you will, most likely, have to endure multiple attempts for them to find a vein, as time goes by. With the port, it's already in a vein, so all they have to do is stick the needle into the port to access it. If you find this uncomfortable, there is a cream they can give you called Emla cream. One of the first things I learned was to tell them the moment I was uncomfortable. It's all fixable. You'll put the Emla cream on a bit before you have to have your port accessed and it'll numb your skin.

Most breast cancer chemotherapy drugs will cause your hair to fall out. This is because chemo kills the rapidly dividing cells in your body. Your mucous areas and hair follicles are affected for this reason. That's why you may have nausea or develop mouth or throat sores. Again, all this sounds scary, but is totally manageable. Since you will probably be losing your hair, which can be quite traumatic, I would advise going wig or hat shopping before you even get your first chemo. Take a girlfriend with you and be adventurous. Try on different styles, and even colors. If you've always wanted to be a blonde, now's your chance! Make a day of it and have fun with it. Goodness knows, you have to look for that silver lining every chance you get. Also, make sure to have your nausea med prescription filled before you go so you'll have it waiting for you if you need it at home. You may be pretty tired, afterward, so don't wait till then to get those meds.

On your first chemo day, they will probably give you some steroids, intravenously or through your port, to help with the nausea. This may make you hungry; it sure did for me! But, I would recommend you don't eat your favorite food on chemo day. Chemo is manageable, but after you're all done, you may find that you have associations. For example, I used to love the cucumber melon fragrance when I was going through chemo. I had cucumber melon everything! But, to this day, the smell of cucumber melon makes my stomach do a little somersault because it reminds me of such an unpleasant time in my life. The same can happen with food. I still can't look a chicken burrito in the eye! But, I'm sure glad I didn't eat a taco because I would've hated for that to be ruined for me!

Many breast cancer chemo drugs are hard on your bladder, so be sure to drink, drink, drink. If you don't feel like drinking water, then broth, jello, or even popsicles will help. Since you've gotten your nausea meds all filled in advance, be sure to take them as prescribed, whether you think you need them or not. Chemo nausea isn't just any kind of nausea and it's much easier to stay ahead of it than to try to fix it once it occurs. If you do happen to get nauseated, and I can't stress this enough, call your doctor!!! There are many, many nausea meds and you do not have to feel sick just because you're doing chemo. Once they find the right drug for you, it will be so much easier. So, do not suffer this in silence! The same applies for if you get sores in your mouth or throat.

You will be tired from this treatment. Most of us get more tired as the treatments progress because they make our white blood cell counts drop really low. Because of this, it's a good idea to keep some Purell, or something similar, with you all the time for use when you've had to touch, for example, public restroom door handles. Your risk of infection will be much higher during this time.

If you lose your hair, it will typically happen in 10-14 days after your first chemo treatment. If you have long hair, you might want to cut it short in preparation. I know I felt so out of control of everything, during that time. When your hair comes out, it lets go quickly and in large clumps, getting all over your pillow and clogging your drain. For many women, that is more traumatic than even losing a breast. So, I figured that was the one thing I could control about this whole breast cancer thing … when my hair came out. I cut it really short, beforehand and, when it started to let go, I had my husband get the clippers and shave my head. My daughter helped and we did a little Mohawk and stripe action first!

That was my way of shaking my fist at this cancer … it might take my breasts, and it might take my hair for a while, but I beat it to the punch! It was my way of saying, "You cannot take my spirit!" You can do the same thing. Your breast cancer does not define you. It is but a speed bump in the course of your life. Strap on your gloves and step into the ring. This chemo is your biggest punch. Your spirit is your own and that breast cancer can't touch it!

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Can Your New York Area Dentist Diagnose Cancer?

Visiting your New York Dentist is not the best idea if you suspect that there is a possible mouth or tongue cancer. Unfortunately, most people don't realize that there is cause for concern in the subtle changes to mouth tissue. That is probably why most of these are initially recognized during routine dental check-ups.

Ideally, anyone involved in habits that contribute to the development of oral cancers namely chewing tobacco, smoking or using snuff; would learn the symptoms of these diseases and watch for them. In a perfect world these folks would be hyper-sensitive to any lesions, discoloration or changes in oral tissue. If we all did then these cancers would be detected very early and the prognosis would be far, far better.

Perfect world scenarios rarely pan out however. People who engage in risky health practices are also likely to dismiss dental hygiene with a quick brushing now and then. Even more startling is the statistic for oral cancers among people who are involved in no risky habits. About 27 % of those contracting oral cancers have no known risk factors. That's why dentists are trained to examine and identify mouth cancers particularly on the tongue during every routine dental examination. Long before other health professionals are called into the patient's consultation the dentist has often made a preliminary diagnosis.

Some New York dentists are using new technology to help identify and mark precancerous tissues especially in "at risk" groups. These use a combination of harmless blue marking dyes and light to make the mouth screening more accurate. The new protocol, called ViziLite Plus is produced by Zila Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona. While this is not a revolutionary change in oral cancer screening it does use a simple concept to make the process better.

That's reason enough to keep six month dental check-ups. Of course the other main reasons are still of primary concern. But having a dentist perform a visual examination for cancer in the head and neck area every time a routine check up and cleaning is scheduled is sort of a value added bonus for the consumer in all of us!

It is estimated that the most advanced cases of oral cancer may require medical care that may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat. The treatment isn't anything that most people would want to go through either. Surgeries up to and including removing many parts of the mouth and tongue may be necessary. Most people can think of far better ways to spend that money. This of course makes the value of early oral cancer diagnosis more important from even a micro budgeting standpoint.

Even without health insurance these semi-annual visits are a bargain. Prevention of periodontal disease is also a huge money savings that can result from professional tooth cleaning. And catching caries before a deep cavity is formed saves suffering as well as tooth structures. Removing stains during the six month check up and cleaning is intended to keep caries from forming but is more valuable than a tube of new lip stick from a cosmetic stand point.

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Major Discovery: How Carcinogens Cause Cancer

The current belief in medical research holds that most cancers are caused by exposure to carcinogens, and that carcinogens cause cancer by damaging DNA. However, the huge effort and billions of dollars invested by the NIH, private foundations, and pharmaceutical companies in searching for damaged DNA in cancer has produced few discoveries and little benefits to the public. The reason for this limited success is very simple. The cause of most cancers is not damaged DNA.

Hunting for Genetic Mutations and Cancer
A little background:
1. What is a gene? A gene is an assembly line that produces a protein. A gene is made out of DNA.
2. What are proteins? Proteins are the major building blocks of cells.
3. What is a mutated gene? A mutated gene is a modified assembly line. A modification can take many forms, such as removing an essential part of the assembly line, replacing an important part with junk, etc. Very rarely a mutation is beneficial to the organism (X-Men, Evolution, Lance Armstrong?). In all other cases, a mutated gene is considered damaged DNA.

Current belief:
What is the cause of cancer? The word cause has two meanings. The first refers to the elements in the environment which impact our body, for instance, tobacco, x-ray radiation, asbestos, other chemicals, etc. These elements are called carcinogens. Today, hundreds of substances are classified as carcinogens. The other meaning of the word cause refers to the internal element of the body, which is the first to collapse under the attack of the carcinogens. Let's call this element our "Achilles heel."

The current belief in medical research holds that most cancers are caused by exposure to carcinogens, and that carcinogens cause cancer by mutating genes. In other words, according to the current belief, the structural integrity of our genes is our Achilles heel, and therefore, the first internal element to collapse under the attack of the carcinogens. This belief is so ingrained that the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), an institute at the NIH, recently stated that "all cancers are based on genetic mutations in body cells." Moreover, a search on PubMed, the search engine for scientific papers in life science, with the keywords "Mutation" AND "cancer" produced 86,490 papers and 12,238 reviews. Mutation hunting is also a big business. Look at the NIH budget allocated to discoveries of genetic mutations, the number of biotech companies chasing genetic mutations, the magnitude of the licensing agreements between biotech and pharmaceutical companies aimed to utilize newly discovered genetic mutations, and the number of stories in the media on genetic mutations and their so-called "link" to disease. However, this huge effort and billions of dollars has produced few discoveries and little benefits to the public. The reason for this limited success is simple. The cause of most cancers is not a genetic mutation. Our Achilles heel is not the structural integrity of our genes.

The story of the BRCA1 gene is a typical example of mutation hunting.

The Mystery of BRCA1
Genes, in general, produce proteins, which are the building blocks of cells. The concentration of proteins is tightly regulated. A mutated or physically altered gene produces an abnormal concentration of its protein, which may lead to disease. In 1994, Mark Skolnick, PhD, discovered the BRCA1 gene (BRCA1 is short for BReast CAncer 1). Following the discovery, scientists observed an abnormally low level of the BRCA1 protein in breast cancer tissues. The BRCA1 protein is a cell cycle suppressor, which means that the protein prevents cell replication. This observation created a lot of excitement. At the time, scientists believed that they were on the verge of finding the cause of breast cancer. The reasoning was that breast cancer patients must have a mutated BRCA1 gene, that is, a defected BRCA1 assembly line, which would explain the decreased production of the protein, and the excessive replication of breast cancer cells in tumors.

In the United States, 180,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year. However, the BRCA1 gene is mutated in less than 5% of these cases. In more than 95% of breast cancer patients the gene is not mutated, the assembly line is not defected.

So here is the mystery. If the gene is not mutated in the great majority of the breast cancer patients, why are the tumors showing low levels of the BRCA1 protein? Today, this is one of the biggest mysteries in cancer research.

The BRCA1 gene is not unique. Many normal (perfect shape, non-mutated) genes exhibit a mysterious abnormal (increased or decreased) production of proteins in cancer. Moreover, studies also report abnormal gene expression of normal genes in other diseases, such as atherosclerosis, obesity, osteoarthritis, type II diabetes, alopecia, type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, asthma, lupus, thyroiditis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and graft versus host disease.

According to Dr. Raxit J. Jariwalla in his European Journal of Cancer paper: (Jariwalla RJ. Microcompetition and the origin of cancer. Eur J Cancer. 2005 Jan;41(1):15-9): "The prevalent view of the nature of cancer holds that it is a complex genetic process resulting from the progressive accumulation of mutations in specific cellular genes, such as proto-oncogenes or tumor-suppressor genes, leading to perturbations in processes involving signal transduction, cell cycle regulation, and/or apoptosis. Genetic instability in tumors has been known for decades, however, the role of genomic instability in causing and promoting tumor growth remains controversial. Furthermore, although many studies report abnormal gene expression in cancer cells, often, no mutations or chemical modifications are observed around the locus of the dysregulated gene(s), suggesting that a genetic alteration is not the initiating event of cancer."

So, if a genetic alteration (also called genetic mutation or damaged DNA) is not the initiating event of most cancers, what is this event? And how do carcinogens produce this initiating event? You can find the answers to these questions at http://www.causeofcancer.org/

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Present-Day Activities for a Cancer-Free Future

Cancer is defined as the abnormal state of uncontrolled production of one or more cells which eventually hampers normal body functions. This ailment is one of the major causes of deaths around the world. Medical studies show that the elderly have heightened risks of developing cancer because it may take 15 to 45 years for its signs and symptoms to be evident. Some forms of cancer might be genetically inclined while many cancer cells may develop because of unhealthy activities or diets over a long period of time. This article is about the essence of present activities and how it may help in the prevention of cancer.

Eat the right food

Healthy food consumption is the first line of defense against the “Big C.” A diet composed of fruits, vegetables, and fiber are important in promoting overall health and preventing cancer. Vegetables are effective cancer fighters. Tomatoes contain lycopene, a substance that is essential in fighting certain kinds of cancer, while broccoli is contains sulforaphane, another anti-cancer compound. Cauliflower, celery, lentils. peas, and other vegetables also possess anti-cancer properties. Foods like potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat pastas, and bread are high on fiber and are essential in flushing carcinogenic compounds out of the body. In addition, the consumption of smoked and charcoal-cooked meats should be controlled. Food cooked over hot flames may absorb certain chemicals that are carcinogenic.

Maintain proper weight

Medical studies show that women who are 40 percent or more above their appropriate weight may face a greater risk of acquiring breast, colon, ovarian, and gallbladder cancers. This is because estrogen stored in excess fat tissue may cause the development of tumors. Overweight or obese men, on the other hand, when diagnosed with prostate cancer still have a high risk of cancer recurrence even after undergoing treatment. A study released by the Massachusetts General Hospital in November 2007 revealed that men with Body Mass Index between 25 and 30 were more than 1.5 times more likely to die from their cancer.

Cut the alcohol and quit smoking

Drinking alcohol, especially coupled with smoking may increase the risk of cancer of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, and liver in men, and of breast cancer in women. Excessive alcohol use is responsible for about 18,000 deaths a year while cigarette smoking is responsible for about 30 percent of all cancer deaths.

Exercise

Exercise may help prevent cancer, this is probably because it helps eliminate excess fat. Many studies show that sedentary individuals have a higher chance of acquiring certain cancers. A workout three times a week about half an hour each session is enough to fight cancer.

Perform self-diagnosis

One of the best defense against cancer is early discovery of any abnormality. The earlier the stage in which a cancer is discovered, the better the chances there are to be cured. Many forms of cancer have higher chances of getting cured if they are detected in their early stages. Consult doctors and other health professionals on how to go through these.

When it comes to cancer, prevention is the only real solution. People should seek the advice of doctors and other health specialists about the signs and symptoms of certain cancers. It is necessary for the prevention of this dreaded disease. There are many kinds of information available on the Internet, newspapers, magazines, and other reading materials. However, these materials are no substitutes to the advice and opinions of doctors and health professionals.

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