I know 40,000 women die from breast cancer every year. The fact that this hasn’t decreased very much over the years is why I started blogging for change. What we have been doing – the pink ribbon campaigns, the fundraising, the awareness, the self-exams, the mammography, the research – hasn’t prevented those deaths from occurring [...]
I was sad to get a notice in my inbox yesterday that the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors at Cornell University has lost it’s funding. The program has been providing science-based information on environmental factors and breast cancer risk for 14 years. They have produced excellent videos and fact sheets on many [...]
A vigorous debate over cancer screening, and mammography in particular, has erupted in the media and across the blogosphere this week. Two things prompted the firestorm. The first, was a commentary published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “Rethinking Screening for Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer.” The gist of the article is that [...]
I was very excited this morning to see that some folks at the National Cancer Institute are concerned about the gap in our knowledge about breast cancer in different age groups, and the need to address this in research studies. This is something I’ve been concerned about for awhile. Over and over studies are showing [...]
There was a press release out of Arizona today on a new procedure to use adult stem cells from fat to formulate new breast tissue that would grow its own blood supply. The press release calls it “Natural Breast Augmentation” for breast enlargement, but also discusses the possibilities for reconstruction in breast cancer patients. The [...]
Forty years ago, women with breast cancer were viewed as tragic victims, and they mostly dealt with their disease in isolation. But over the years, the pink revolution, and the “coming out” of celebrity women such as Betty Ford, has brought the disease out into the light. Those with the disease were transformed from victims [...]
Wow. That didn’t take long. Once again, private industry is poised to exploit women’s fears of breast cancer for profit. This time – women under 45. NeoMatrix, the makers of the HALO Breast Pap Test, are throwing considerable resources toward ensuring passage of the EARLY Act. The Act calls for a national education campaign on [...]
Great research published today in Nature. Canadian researchers have identified the complete genetic code for a metastatic breast tumor and compared it to the genetic code for the primary tumor. This was in human breast tumors (the metastatic tumor found nine years after the primary) – not in a mouse or laboratory cell line. Why [...]
More evidence out today that women taking tamoxifen for hormone responsive breast cancer should determine if they are good metabolizers of the drug. Poor metabolizers have a significantly higher rate of recurrence, according to a study published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Tamoxifen by itself does not inhibit the [...]
New research suggests that radiation treatment may be causing some hypothyroidism in breast cancer patients. In a study published online today in the Journal of Radiation Oncology, women who had been treated for breast cancer with radiation were significantly more likely to have hypothyroidism than women from the general population. In the Norwegian study, self-reported [...]
