Women with advanced breast cancer many times will have to go through what is called a radical mastectomy. It is called a radical mastectomy, because it is, by medical and personal standards, considered a somewhat radical procedure that removes large amounts of your body and also because it radically alters one’s anatomy and is considered [...]
It has been a long held assumption (at least from myself, admittedly) that the feared breast cancer gene comes from mothers, and maternal aunts and sisters and that is how the breast cancer gene is passed on from generation to generation, but new studies are proving that the so called breast cancer gene, or the [...]
Research has recently shown yet another common thread in breast cancer patients, one that is significant and credible enough that it seems as though research is almost about to crack the breast cancer code and be able to formulate (we all hope) much better therapies other than the incredibly destructive and life altering treatment for [...]
For men with breast cancer, there can definitely be a feeling of being totally alone as one of the few unlucky men who get the disease, which is mostly confined to the female of the human species. The reason for that is mostly because of biological makeup, and simply because women’s hormones are often the [...]
A news story recently came out about how less radiation treatment is being ok’d as a treatment for breast cancer. What exactly does this mean? Well, hopefully a good thing! The large study is suggesting that women with beginning stage breast cancer, with smaller tumors, may not need as much radiation therapy as once thought, [...]
Well, I don’t know if this news is news that’s THAT good, but it’s another step in the fight to severely lessen or at least cripple the incidence of breast cancer in today’s women, one of the most common cancers in women today. What is this genetic discovery? It is one that says that a [...]
There was a significant drop in 2003 in the rate of breast cancer occurrence in women, and apparently medical research and conclusions are pointing to the fact that the nearly 9% decrease in the breast cancer rate – a statistically significant drop for such a short period of time, was definitely linked to the same [...]
There has been news recently about the debate over whether all women in their forties, who are generally considered to be at the point of starting to get into the higher risk category for getting breast cancer, should be getting mammograms. The big debate is, that while most doctors have been advising patients to get [...]
It sounds like a pricey alernative, and in fact it is one that insurance companies may balk at because they’ll most likely bear the brunt of the costs, but MRI’s or magnetic resonance imaging, which is not a cheap medical process, are being recommended by the cancer society docs for women who are at high [...]
A few weeks ago we brought a piece about how obesity has been linked to breast cancer, so the logical thought process would be if you are thinner and maintain a healthy weight throughout time, you may actually significantly decrease your risk of developing breast cancer. One may have assumed that once a woman gets [...]
This may be an exciting new development in the world of advanced breast cancer treatement in the medical world, but the actual total benefits are not 100% known at this time, although the new advanced breast cancer component drug called Tykerb is promising in some instances. The drug was just FDA approved to work in [...]
I’m seeing an increasing amount of the pink ribbons on cars and other places where they may be prominently displayed, which are a sign of support to breast cancer research, funding and furthering of finding good treatments and maybe even a cure for this potentially deadly female (mostly) disease. This is definitely a good thing, [...]
Exciting news in the world of breast cancer research and breast cancer prevention and treatment. Remember how we talked about new genetic testing that could be done and was on the very fringe of breast cancer research? Well, apparently one of these “gene tests” is now FDA approved to better predict whether women are prone [...]
When I read this headline, my hopes sort of sank, because we all know that mammograms can truly be lifesavers for women who regularly schedule them and tend to their breast health as an important issue. The headline was not a trick headline either, it really did mean that less women are getting mammograms, which [...]
My aunt died of breast cancer. I’m sure most of you also either have relatives or even close, dear friends that you know who have battled with this cancer, as it is one of the top diseases that women get. In the metropolitan Cleveland area, the Susan G Komen foundation puts on a lot of [...]
I was just listening to a new commercial for a women’s health vitamin by (I believe) One a Day multivitamins which contains vitamin D as a purported breast health supporter. I looked into whether Vitamin D is good for breast health, or if there is any anecdotal or hard evidence to back this claim up. [...]
The focus is so high on female breast cancer, and rightly so – women are about 100 times more likely to get breast cancer than men it has been estimated, due to substantially more breast tissue – that no one really gives much thought or much study to the male version of this potentially deadly [...]
No matter what your age, if you do a breast self exam and you find a lump, it is always a scary thing. Many times though, these lumps are perfectly natural, and are not a sign of breast cancer, but rather a natural phenomena that happens to almost all women, especially at certain times of [...]
This is not so shocking, but actually is somewhat of a surprise that they have already found out this information so early in the research stages of a new field : Genetic testing. We had posted a couple posts ago about how genetic testing has huge implications for breast cancer research, and for women who [...]
After steady increases for years in the rates of breast cancer, in the year 2003, breast cancer rates dropped a dramatic 7.2 percent. That is more than good news for women. A decline of that proportion in breast cancer rates is great news. A correlation has been drawn between the decline in breast cancer rates [...]
A major government funded study recently revealed that the previous popularity of medical HRT hormone treatments for menopausal women may have been linked to breast cancer development more than was initially thought. It had long been speculation that the use of synthetic hormone replacement in women who were going through the menopause period in their [...]
A new device is being touted as possibly offering and almost instantaneous diagnosis of breast cancer in women. It’s called the “Elastograph” and the name of the procedure you would get, like a mammogram, is called the “Elastogram”. The Elastograph machine uses and experimental ultra sound technology, kind of like that which is used to [...]
The pill called the abortion pill, or morning after pill, the RU486, has been shown recently to help inhibit a gene that notoriously causes breast cancer in women, in laboratory mice. This is promising, since scientists now know that breast cancer many times is caused by a specific gene that some women have which makes [...]
Remember the new drug that we talked about a few months back that was being tested as another possible treatment for breast cancer after surgery had already been exercised, called Herceptin? Well, it appears the drug has now won an even more expansive FDA approval after breast cancer research has shown the drug to be [...]
I found a very worthwhile website that I think every woman may want to visit, to lend a simple supporting hand to the quest for free mammograms to those that need them but may not have the means to get the potentially life-saving screening for breast cancer. It’s called TheBreastCancerSite, and if you just visit [...]
New breast cancer research on why black women seem to be more prone to a more agressive form of breast cancer tumors, called estrogen receptor negative, which cannot be treated by the best breast cancer drugs today. It used to be that the assumption on why black women seemed to more prone to die from [...]
It seems that women with breast cancer in the female side of their family may still have to worry even if a breast cancer specific gene mutation is not found in their family. New research is showing that these women may still have a statistically higher risk of getting breast cancer than women who do [...]
Yet another new study on the prevention of breast cancer is yielding some sort of surprising evidence that a new vitamin may be added to the breast cancer arsenal against the spread of the deadly cancer. It’s Vitamin D. For some reason, and not to say that these findings are conclusive in any way, but [...]
There are constantly new studies coming out about how we as women can help our bodies fight against breast cancer, and help to maintain healthy breast tissue. The latest in breast cancer research does not come as much of a shock, but rather is somewhat of a common sense issue, since these pointers really apply [...]
I have been reading up on this quite a bit lately, because the idea that breast massage may possibly be therapeutic for many breast health issues, namely and most importantly, breast cancer, is not only intriguing but compelling to me to find an answer as to whether it really does help. It seems after reading [...]
There may be a new technology to detect the spread of breast cancer is women who have breast cancer at various stages of the disease. It is a new diagnostic tool whose idea is to look for and find circulating tumor cells, which actually can give sort of a reading of the spreading of breast [...]
Well, North American women did not get some good news about their risk of breast cancer. Not only are North American women at a statistically much higher risk for developing breast cancer, but doctors are now saying that women who have a specific gene mutation, may not want to get chest xrays. Chest xrays may [...]
A recent survey/study has shown that US female students (college, I’m assuming), were not “in the know” when it came to potential risk factors in developing breast cancer in their later years. I know for myself, when I was a college student attending Kent State University years ago, had no idea that my drinking (alcohol) [...]
To me, this realization was more of a “duh”, since I’ve never really been a pro-chemo person to begin with, but nonetheless, now evidence to back up the fact that chemo hits women with breast cancer hard has made itself apparent. It was measured that roughly one in every six women with breast cancer being [...]
As I stated in the last thought, it is important that you “get to know” your breasts – how they normally feel, and what may not be normal in your breast if you happen to feel a lump or mass. Many times, during our periods or hormonal swings, our breasts do tend to have fibrous [...]
We all know, as women, that we are constantly reinforced and encouraged to perform routine breast exams on ourselves, to make early detection of any lumps which can possibly be a cancerous growth in our breasts all that much more possible. Well, it seems that some women really take this to heart and others do [...]
Last post I talked about bust exercises and breast asymmetry, where women have unevenly shaped or sized breasts, and choose to either help them naturally by exercises or by surgery. Well, upon further research on breast asymmetry, I found that this socially uncomfortable condition may actually be considered a risk factor for breast cancer. Well, [...]
Whoa, stop the presses – when I read this I thought, something that DOUBLES the risk of such a serious disease like breast cancer is still being sold here in the US? And then I kept reading on about this newest discovery, on a hormone pill given mostly to menopausal women to relieve menopause symptoms, [...]
Well, not exactly in every case, but new research shows that in certain women with genetic weaknesses which predispose them to breast cancer may have as much as a 54% higher risk of developing breast cancer simply from getting a mammogram. Why is this? I wanted to know too, as we all know, a mammogram [...]
Well, there’s been good news and bad news in the fight to cure breast cancer, or at least reduce the incidence of it. Researchers have just found a gene in women of European origin that can greatly increase their risk of developing the prominent female disease. This newly discovered breast cancer gene is said to [...]
It almost seems too good to be true, but a new genetic test developed and currently under study as we speak, may help women to make the tough choice of whether to undergo chemotherapy for their breast cancer after a lump or mass of cancerous cells has been removed.It was estimated that thousands of women [...]
There is supposedly a new “experimental phase” drug that is showing that it can actually delay the growth of breast cancer cells. Does this sound too good to be true? It wsa specifically shown to delay the growth of advanced breast cancer in women who had stopped responding to the common breast cancer drug called [...]