Updates to The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Breast Cancer
Here you’ll find useful information that complements the book.
Diagnosis
Breast cancer: Innovative pill may aid diagnosis
Many women with benign breast modules or slow-progressing cancer undergo needless procedures because current diagnostic methods cannot differentiate between harmful and benign tumors. An experimental new pill could change that.
Study: Laser-sonic scan better than mammogram for breast cancer screening
Researchers have developed a quicker, better and cheaper way than mammograms to detect breast cancer: a laser scanner that can find tumors in 15 seconds. Source: Study: Laser-sonic scan better than mammogram for breast cancer screening -...
New ‘Liquid Biopsy’ Shows Early Promise in Detecting Cancer
After performing all of the tests, the researchers found CancerSEEK was best at detecting stage II or III cancers, primary tumors that haven’t metastasized but are getting large. However, it still detected 43 percent of early stage I cancers. The test also detected some cancers better than others. In fact, the panel almost never missed a case of ovarian or liver cancer. But it wasn’t as good in picking up colorectal, lung, and breast cancers.
Surgery
10-Year Results Show That Many Women Don’t Need Axillary Lymph Node Surgery
Source: 10-Year Results Show That Many Women Don’t Need Axillary Lymph Node Surgery
Chemotherapy
UK National Health Service WILL fund breast cancer tests that could spare women the stress of chemotherapy
Experts say the three tests – Oncotype DX, EndoPredict and Prosigna – will, in future, enable women to have much more personalised treatment. The costs of the tests is not known but it is likely that their manufacturers have significantly reduced the price since January.
Scientists Warn Chemotherapy Treatment May Encourage Aggressive Tumors and Spread Cancer
“It is thought the toxic medication switches on a repair mechanism in the body which ultimately allows tumors to grow back stronger. It also increases the number of ‘doorways’ on blood vessels which allow cancer to spread throughout the body.”
Breast cancer: ‘Yin Yang’ protein found responsible for tumor growth
Scientists have uncovered a protein that fuels tumor growth in aggressive breast cancer. The findings may help tackle treatment-resistant tumors.
Radiation
Using Oxygen “Microbubbles” to Improve Radiation Therapy
Oxygen-carrying “microbubbles” could potentially improve the effectiveness of radiation therapy in the treatment of breast cancer, findings from a study in mice suggest. Using the bubbles along with radiation slowed tumor growth more than radiation alone, as this NCI Cancer Currents post reports.
Proton Therapy For Left-Sided Breast Cancer: Why Choose This Treatment?
Treatments for breast cancer include chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, surgery, and radiation. As there is not one perfect formula to eliminate the disease, many patients will need to undergo a combination of these treatment methods. In some of these cases, however, certain treatments pose higher risks. For women with left-sided breast cancer, it is important to consider what type of radiation is best. Since the tumor is close to the heart, certain treatments can cause significant damage to this vital organ, while other treatments may spare damage to this vital organ. In these cases, proton therapy is often a better option.
Lifestyle Issues
Breakfast With a Dose of Roundup?
Glyphosate, an herbicide linked to cancer by California state scientists and the World Health Organization, was found in all but two of 45 samples of products made with conventionally grown oats. Almost three-fourths of those samples had glyphosate levels higher than...
The Precautionary Principle Asks “How Much Harm Is Avoidable?” Rather Than “How Much Harm Is Acceptable?”
As global ecosystems deteriorate and global warming alters water patterns — making economic growth ever more precarious — far-right global elites are counting on new technologies to spur economic growth: geo-engineering (to modify the entire planet to counteract global warming), nanotechnology (to manipulate the world at the molecular level to create novel materials) and synthetic biology (to create entirely new life-forms previously unknown in nature). These technologies are potentially far more powerful than even atomic energy, so they cry out for a prudent, precautionary approach to their testing and possible deployment. Unfortunately, so long as corporate polluters enjoy a nearly-unlimited capacity to inject corrupting money into political decisions — especially in the US — old-style risk assessment will continue to dominate because it serves corporate purposes so well.
Does a higher BMI protect against breast cancer?
Before menopause, a higher BMI seems to be protective against breast cancer, and the opposite is true after the menopause, at which point a higher BMI starts to increase risk.
Other New Research
Pill for Better Diagnosis of Breast Cancer – YouTube
Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a diagnostic imaging pill enabling the early and more accurate diagnosis of cancerous tumors in breast tissue.
A Primary Breast Cancer Tumor Can Inhibit Distant Metastasis: Study
Some types of breast cancers can prevent the development of secondary tumors elsewhere in the body, a process known as metastasis, through an immune-mediated inflammatory mechanism, an international research team showed. Understanding the complex communication network between the primary tumor and the disseminated metastasis-initiating cancer cells could open new therapeutic avenues to prevent cancer recurrence and improve survival rates.
Cancer: New drug may fight treatment resistance
The researchers conclude that their findings show that blocking CDK7 offers a new way to treat cancer — especially ER-positive breast cancer.
In particular, the results suggest that ICEC0942 is a good candidate drug, either on its own or combined with hormone therapies, for the treatment of breast cancer.