Archive for the 'Breast Cancer' Category

According to the National Cancer Institute, there were more than 2.5 million women in 2006 who had a history of any type of breast cancer, and have managed to survive the ordeal.

To give you an idea about just how serious this disease is, take a look at some other statistics:

- Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer (next to lung cancer) in both men and women.

- Breast cancer is the 5th most common cause of cancer-related deaths.

- Breast cancer is 100 times more frequent in women than in men – although the survival rate is equal in both sexes.

As you may already know, breast cancer is a type of cancer which starts in the cells of the breasts in both men and women. Although it does occur more frequently in women, the severity of the illness is just as serious where men are concerned.

Here, we will try to learn a few more things about women’s breasts that you may not necessarily have known about. How do these facts about women’s breasts affect the probability of having breast cancer? Read on to find out.

Research shows that women with BRCA1 and BRCA2, both faulty genes developed in the womb before birth, are more at risk from breast cancer.

In fact carriers have between fifty to eighty percent bigger likelihood of the cancer developing over their lifetime.

However scientists believe that only a small minority of breast cancer victims inherit their disease through their genes. For the majority of women there are no answers to why them and what could they have done to avoid it. Testing can be carried out for women at high risk from the gene and new genetic research is ongoing.

In terms of preventing the cancer from re-occurring, there is some hope in the form of a drug called tamoxifen. Trials have shown that it can lower the risk by up to 40 % however it does have quite serious side effects and much more data needs to be produced.

Unlike cervical cancer, there is unlikely to be a vaccination against breast cancer in the foreseeable future. Professor Valerie Beral is a foremost expert in this field; she believes that more studies should be carried out in this area.

Any woman who has had cancer in one of her breasts is at risk for developing cancer in the second breast.

A new study suggests drinking alcohol may increase this risk of breast cancer by 30 percent.

The longer the women in the study had been users of alcohol, the more likely they were to develop cancer in the second breast.

There are may factors that influence the risk of breast cancer that are beyond women’s control, including gender, age, genetic risk factors, density of breast tissue, onset of menses, late menopause, and family and personal history of breast cancer.

African American women are at greater risk for dying from breast cancer, although more cases of breast cancer occur in white women. Risk factors for breast cancer that women can control are breastfeeding their children, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, and now, keeping alcohol consumption to a minimum.

The standard screening test for breast cancer is a mammogram. A woman should have her first mammogram procedure at the age of 40 unless there are risk factors that indicate beginning screening earlier. Women with a family history of breast cancer may wish to consider genetic screening as well.

In Britain 45,000 women every year are diagnosed with breast cancer, 30 % of these will eventually die from this devastating disease.

The survival rate, if detected early can be as high as 48 per cent according to figures published recently in Annals of Oncology. It recommends that once women have been affected by the disease, regular and continuous monitoring is essential to avoid life threatening secondary tumors from going unnoticed.

The study undertaken by the University of Sydney, for its School of Health program reaffirms the fact that women who survive breast cancer have a life time risk of a relapse or of new cancerous breast lumps developing.

Often the second breast will become infected and a full mastectomy will be the only course of treatment.

Over a thousand women participated in the research, had all attended an Italian cancer clinic from the eighties up until 2005. 14% of those had their cancer diagnosed by a doctor whilst the vast majority had a mammogram, which had identified the disease.

The head of the study, Nehmat Houssami, admitted that the evidence to show the benefit of early detection was pretty thin on the ground.

Recent research into breast (breast cancer types) in pregnant women found that these mothers are not in increased danger of death compared to other women with breast cancer, and that it is the younger women who suffer higher rates of aggressive cancer leading to death.

Although development of cancer in pregnant women is difficult to treat due to the risks for the baby and the mother, researches have found that maternity does not necessarily worsen the effects of cancer.

Pregnant women with cancer can be treated effectively without further damaging consequences.

The study established that the risks of cancer spreading and recurrence as well as the rates of survival were equal in both pregnant women and non-pregnant ones.

The fact that cancer seemed to be at a more advanced stage in pregnant women was probably due to the fact that the apparent breast changes were thought to be caused by their pregnant state, therefore neglected.

Although the treatment of breast tumours in pregnant women is a delicate process, for radiation cannot be used due to the damage it may cause the baby, there are many effective remedies, such as ultrasonic treatment, cancer chemotherapy and surgery, which will not affect the womb.

According to new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine British researchers, when women stop using the hormone replacement therapy (HRT) their risk of developing breast cancer is cut in half.

British scientists believe that the use of the therapy which has fallen by 50% over last few years has probably lead to several thousands less cases of breast cancer. Critics say that these conclusions are open to different interpretation.

Over the last five years there has been continued back and forth argument as to whether HRT, in particular the mixed oestrogen and progestin version has an adverse effect on breast cancer development.

Now researchers in California believe that their findings conclusively prove that HRT is linked to increased risk of breast cancer. As the incidence of breast cancer has fallen significantly since its use in the combination form was banned in 2002 by the US government.

According to this new research which featured a study of over 15,000 women who were using the therapy but stopped in 2002. Their breast cancer rates fell very rapidly, in fact in the first 12 months there were nearly 30% less cases.

In a new case-control study of over 5000 women ranging in age from 21 to 75 who had already received breast cancer treatment were compared with a similar number of women who had not suffered from breast cancer.

The study asked many health-related questions including the amounts of regular tea drunk by each person per day.

According to the results of the study, women especially younger women, who drink large volumes of tea every day reduce their risk of breast cancer by just under 38%.

For the terms of the study, “large amounts” of tea was regarded as more than three cups per day.

In both sets of women almost equal numbers drank three cups or more per day 45% and 44% (control group) allowing for a very good rate of comparison.

Although researcher Dr Nagi Kumar based at Tampa Bay’s Cancer Center and Research Institute states that this is in no way conclusive evidence or proof of the effectiveness of tea in combating breast cancer.

And he concedes that it is possible that the study’s findings could simply be no more than chance or coincidence; he does say that the results are interesting and well worth further enquiry.

Several studies had previously suggested that regular physical exercise reduces the risk of breast cancer in women.

However, it had been unknown just how much exercise women should take in which period in life in order to benefit from this protective effect.

Moreover, little was known about which particular type of breast cancer is influenced by physical activity.

Answers to these questions are now provided by the results of the MARIE study, in which 3,464 breast cancer patients and 6,657 healthy women between the ages of 50 and 74 years were questioned in order to explore the connections between life style and breast cancer risk.

Participants of the study, which was headed by Professor Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude and conducted at the German Cancer Research Center and the University Hospitals of Hamburg-Eppendorf, were questioned about their physical activity during two periods in life: from 30 to 49 years of age and after 50.

A comparison between control subjects and breast cancer patients showed that women in the control group had been physically more active than patients.

The scientists calculated the relative breast cancer risks taking account of the effect of other risk factors.