Breast Cancer Blog

Submitted by Dr.Kattlove’s Cancer Blog

The other day, newspapers carried the story about James Levine having surgery for kidney cancer. Mr. Levine is the highly regarded conductor of both the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as well as the Boston Symphony. He is also fat. I have never seen him in person, but on the tube, he looks pretty rotund.

At one time his rotundity would have startled people because it would have been so unusual. Not now. Mr. Levine looks like a lot of Americans (except for his huge mane of curly hair).

Fortunately, Mr. Levine’s cancer seems to have been caught early and was quite small. This almost certainly assures that he will survive his disease and be back on the podium in fine fettle in the fall.

The U.S. and other “developed” countries have seen the rate of kidney cancer double in the last 30 years. While we are seeing a drop in the risk of lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, not true for cancer of the kidney. This year, 54,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with this cancer, which puts it in the top ten of new cancer diagnoses. Fortunately most of these kidney cancers, like Mr. Levine’s are caught at an early stage – perhaps due to all the CAT scans we get these days.

What is causing this near epidemic of kidney cancer? To answer this, all we have to do is look in the mirror. If we look like Mr. Levine, our risk of kidney cancer is double that of those whose body type more closely resemble, for example, Barack Obama’s.

A recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute nailed the relationship between obesity and kidney cancer. Being fat, they found doubles a person’s risk of kidney cancer. And it turns out that the weight gain that caused the most trouble happened before the age of 50. Usually it occurred between the ages of 18 and 50. High blood pressure increased the risk of the cancer, as well.

Why this happens isn’t known. One theory is that the cancer is caused by the obese body’s resistance to insulin – the same reason fat people get diabetes. To overcome this resistance caused by all that fat, the body secretes a lot of insulin. Sometimes this isn’t enough and diabetes ensues. But along with the insulin comes another hormone called Insulin Related Growth Factor. This molecule, as its name implies, causes cells to grow and has been vaguely linked to several cancers. Not a good enough explanation according to most scientists so the search for the link between obesity and cancer (lots of cancers other than kidney cancer are also related to obesity) continues.

But regardless of the mechanism, we know how to cut our risk for this cancer – so eat well but less.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

(Editor: Fertile Hope gets a nod but it’s not enough)

The emerging field of oncofertility offers hope to patients who worried that they couldn’t conceive.

When Annie Dauer’s oncologist told her she’d need a stem-cell transplant to cure her non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Dauer’s first thought wasn’t about death but about life. “I asked what would happen to my fertility,” she says. Her oncologist dismissed the question: ” ‘Honey, you’re fighting for your life; forget the fertility at this point,’ she told me.” But Dauer, then 30 and newly married, pressed the subject until the oncologist referred her to a fertility specialist. Since Dauer’s chemotherapy regimen would most likely destroy her body’s egg supply, the specialist, in an experimental procedure, removed one of her ovaries, froze it and reimplanted it when Dauer recovered. Three years later, Dauer, now cancer-free, and her husband, Greg, have a 2-year-old daughter, Sienna, and a second baby on the way.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

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Special thanks to YOGABEAR and i[2]y’er Halle Tecco for being teh awesome!

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

This is the band WideAwake who sing “LIVESTRONG”, which is the official theme song for Lance Armstrong Foundation. It would appear they’re “stupidcancerSTRONG” now with special thanks to i[2]y’er Matthew Lowney for making this happen!

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

Reason TV has a story about a 17-year-old high school kid from California who got bone cancer and had to get his leg amputated. His medicine was making him feel worse, so his parents decided to try medical marijuana. The marijuana greatly helped Owen, easing his pain and nausea. Then the authorities put a stop to it.

Stupid cancer!

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

From “The Morning Show” With Mike & Juliet….

Can this dangerous party drug help (LSD) extend the life of terminally ill patients?

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

Personalized vaccine made of tobacco plants, which normally cause cancer, can be used to help people suffering from lymphoma in challenging the disease…

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

In the throes of chemotherapy, two women who had never met were both thinking the same thing: “I’m too young for this.”

That thought led single mother Shari Falls, 33, of Canberra, and Newcastle university student Louise Mackay, 21, to meet online and form Australia’s only cancer support group for young adults.

Doctors estimated they had three months to live.

“I wanted to go on living rather than planning my funeral. I wrote a list of things to do before I died, and up high on that list was starting a support group to beat this stupid cancer,” Ms Falls said.

In her long fight against cancer, Ms Falls endured 11 years of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Despite being diagnosed infertile, she fell pregnant twice and had two more daughters.

“Back then I was ill-informed and felt like cancer was something old people got, not me, I couldn’t possibly have it. I was 23 and ready to party,” Ms Falls said.

Ms Mackay was 18 when she was told she had leukaemia: “All my friends were out partying and I was stuck worrying if I was going to wake up the next day.”

Ms Falls and Ms Mackay are nominated together in the Pride of Australia Medal for their courage.

I’m Too Young For This, also known as i(2)y, is the first survivor-led advocacy, support and research group for young adults. It began in February with seven members and now has more than 400.

“People need to understand the difference between the needs of a child, a young person and an older person with cancer,” Ms Mackay said.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

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From WritersBreak.com

Having survived a July, 2000 diagnosis of a stage I, left multi-focal invasive breast cancer, Cindy Papale decided to embark on writing a book to educate young women and men on the many facets of her often misunderstood disease. Within The Empty Cup Runneth Over (Dorrance Publishing Company, 2008), Papale chronicles her journey from diagnosis, treatment and beyond—discussing the many hurdles she faced and the lessons she learned along the way.What’s more–within the book–she and co-author Sabrina Hernandez, collaborate with a brilliant group of specialists who contribute special chapters that provide much professional insight into this illness, further demystifying a disease in which most Americans know little.We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Papale. Here’s what she told us.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

(Editor: Special Thanks to Kris Carr for the props in this piece!) Rather than surrendering to despair and impersonal medical treatments, growing numbers of cancer patients are empowering themselves with information and control over their therapies. The trend is finding acceptance in mainstream medicine and helping people with cancer lead healthier lives. Here are tips on managing the illness.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

A Tampa bride-to-be who defied doctors’ expectations after being told she had a year to live four years ago has celebrated another victory — she and her fiancee won a $100,000 dream wedding.

Courtney Dempsey, 33, and Gary Courtney, 37, were among 40,000 couples who entered US Magazine’s wedding contest. The prize includes a dress and honeymoon. “We’re beyond thrilled. We’re actually in a state of shock right now,” Dempsey said Tuesday.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

Medical advice can be frustratingly contradictory, especially when it comes to the issue of screening. Now, a new report questions the usefulness of breast self-exams, finding that the commonly recommended screening tool may not help save women’s lives — and may even do more harm than good.

According to a review by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research, there’s no evidence that self-exams actually reduce breast cancer deaths. In fact, the often-recommended monthly chore may even do more harm than good, according to the group’s analysis of a pair of studies of nearly 400,000 Chinese and Russian women

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Screw Chemo. Let’s Go ‘Shrooming

The spiritual effects of a substance in “sacred mushrooms” can last more than a year, Johns Hopkins researchers claim. The scientists said their investigations may lead to new ways to help people with conditions such as cancer, depression and drug dependence.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog.

Rock on, Leah!

Excerpt from her first post….

So this is the first blog entry for Insider. Although I’m not new to the blogosphere and have blogged for about two years, (if you call the year of myspace authentic) I am honored to have been asked by Insider to share with you a window into my life…after cancer. Wait…Routers redirect! (on the internet we don’t say stop the presses). Cancer? Yep…but I am here to tell you that there is an amazing life after the ‘big C’ and I’m living it.

Let’s just get this obligatory medical scoop out of the way. I was diagnosed with advanced thyroid cancer at 26. Then at 28 it was Hodgkins Lymphoma. I am now in remission from both.

So now let me go out on a limb and assume that you are thinking I am too young for cancer. Well, let’s just say I’ve said this a few times before probably littered with a few expletives. Yet I hope if there’s one thing you learn from reading my blog it’s that cancer is not an advanced age or life stage concern. After starting a support community of other young adult cancer survivors here in Rochester, I’ve opened my eyes to how many other young people in our community are affected.

This is also celebratory blog of sorts. Just this past Thursday I got the reassuring post-scan visit thumbs up. I am officially 18 months cancer free from Hodgkins. I graduated from full body scans every 90 days to scans every six months. And once again the pictures were clean. Woooohooo!

The parking garage at Wilmot is another story. Talk about an ordeal. Has anyone ever gotten lost in one? I have. But I think I have it down to a science now. My mom, who thankfully accompanies me to these nerve-racking appointments, parked the car while I checked in. Usually it takes an average of 5-10 minutes to find a spot. Finding the car can be a trial in itself, but it just so happens that the color coded level matched my shirt so we were all good to remember, even without those seemingly silly paper tickets. Actually, I highly advise these.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog.

American swimmer Eric Shanteau, who qualified for the Beijing Games in the 200-metre breaststroke, has revealed he is battling testicular cancer.

Shanteau, 24, said he learned of the diagnosis just a week before the recent U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, and that he was cleared to compete by doctors.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

Increasing numbers of young women continue to be diagnosed with the most dangerous form of skin cancer even as the rate has leveled off in young men, federal health officials reported today.

An analysis of government cancer statistics between 1973 and 2004 found that the rate of new melanoma cases in young women had jumped 50 percent since 1980, but had not increased for young men in that period.

“It’s worrying,” said Mark Purdue, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute, who led the analysis published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. “What we are seeing in young adults right now could foretell a much larger number of melanoma cases in older women.”

The new research did not examine the reasons for the trend, but Purdue said it could be due to such factors as women spending more time outdoors and indoor tanning. Young women are much more likely than young men to frequent tanning salons, Purdue and others said.

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Submitted by Dr.Kattlove’s Cancer Blog

Many things increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. Some she can control, others she can’t. Uncontrollable items are, starting periods at a young age, ending them at a late age, having few or no babies and having them late in life. Of course, the biggest uncontrollable gorilla in the room is what a woman inherits from her parents, but I’m not going to talk about that this time.

High-risk items a woman can control are, whether if she has a baby she doesn’t nurse, whether she takes hormones after menopause, gets fat or drinks too much.

Another important question is, if a woman gets breast cancer, how these factors affect her chance of surviving the cancer. It turns out that most of these don’t hurt her chances and some my even help.

We know this because of research done by some British researchers that was published in this month’s Journal of Clinical Oncology. The Brits looked at the history of some 4500 women with breast cancer and matched them with some of the risk factors I mentioned above.

It turns out that survival in women with most of these risk factors is not affected. That is, if a woman who began her periods early, or ended them late, or took hormones developed breast cancer, she did as well as women without these issues. In fact, the women who took hormones may have fared better with their breast cancers than women who stayed away from them. This makes sense because these women tend to develop hormone sensitive breast cancers that are generally less aggressive and more easily treated – as long as they are caught early.

Big surprise was with alcohol. Although drinking increases a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer, women who drank had better outcomes – were less likely to die of their cancer - than women who kept away from the stuff. The researchers couldn’t explain this but weren’t recommending trips to the local pubs; they couldn’t be sure this finding would hold up if more studies were done. Still, there’s no harm in a drink or two and it might get a woman through some rough spots.

One risk factor was dangerous – obesity. The more overweight a woman was, the more likely she was to die of her breast cancer. So take this to heart and keep slim – even if you have to cut down on the booze.

In addition, women with any of these risk factors should be especially sure to get their mammograms. Even heavy drinking won’t help if the cancer is caught too late.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

NY TIMES Article: Cancer-Specific Products: An Unnecessary Balm?

For the last seven years that Kairol Rosenthal, 35, has battled thyroid cancer with hormone pills, radiation, surgery and grit, she has had to contend with 101-degree fevers, heart palpitations and a lack of appetite so pronounced she has to force herself to eat.The hormone therapy, designed to slow tumor growth, leaves red blotches on her face and bone-dry patches along her jaw line, said Ms. Rosenthal, a choreographer and writer in Chicago.“I have not yet made my peace with having skin that doesn’t look good,” said Ms. Rosenthal, who spends most of her free time hunting for news about thyroid cancer. “I want my skin to look good.”So Ms. Rosenthal was pleased when she heard an advertisement for Lindi Skin, a skincare line designed for cancer patients, on a radio program called “The Stupid Cancer Show.”“It’s great someone has cancer patients in mind,” said Ms. Rosenthal, who is writing a book about living with the disease, to be published by Wiley.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

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Submitted by http://kattlovecancerblog.blogspot.com/

Recently, the FDA sent warning letters to a bunch of companies selling “cancer cures”, telling them to stop.

The products contain ingredients such as bloodroot, shark cartilage, coral calcium, cesium, ellagic acid, Cat’s Claw, an herbal tea called Essiac, and mushroom varieties such as Agaricus Blazeii, Shitake, Maitake, and Reishi. Some of the fraudulent claims were:

* “Treats all forms of cancer”
* “Causes cancer cells to commit suicide!”
* “80% more effective than the world’s number one cancer drug”
* “Skin cancers disappear”
* “Target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone”
* “Shrinks malignant tumors”
* “Avoid painful surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or other conventional treatments”

All nonsense. None of these products have ever been proven to help save anyone’s life from cancer.

I became convinced of the pure financial greed of people selling these products over 40 years ago. Then I was helping care for a patient with a less common form of lung cancer called small cell carcinoma. This form of lung cancer is usually fatal, but will temporarily shrink with chemotherapy much faster than the garden variety lung cancers we usually see.

But, he wanted none of our treatment and fled from L.A. where I was working, to a clinic in Mexico, where the drug Laetrile was standard therapy – or so I thought. Several months later, he reappeared and his chest x-ray showed the tumor had nearly disappeared. Wow, we thought. So several of my colleagues went to the clinic to find out what he was given. Chemotherapy. The Mexican doctors realized he had a treatable condition and followed their best ethical judgment and gave the man appropriate treatment. They knew the other stuff was worthless.

Still, every so often I would lose a patient to a Mexican clinic for Laetrile therapy. Most of these were patients who were getting worse in spite of conventional therapy and were desperate. I couldn’t blame them. Laetrile held out hope because it hadn’t failed them yet – but it would.

Then in the early 80’s, patients stopped heading for Mexico. Why? A clinical trial was performed by U.S. researchers and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, perhaps the world’s most prestigious medical journal. The trial showed that Laetrile did not help any patients and may have harmed some because the drug contains industrial strength amounts of cyanide.

So before answering one of the ads for a cancer cure, ask whether anyone has shown the stuff really helps and what is in these potions. Do they contain any harmful chemicals? The sellers won’t know. They are only interested in your credit card number.

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Submitted by The Stupid Cancer Blog

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