by
Carl Hampton
10/06/2006
Survival rates of breast cancer sufferers
are now up to 50 percent and two-thirds of
all women survive cancer for at least 20
years. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is now
working on predicting which types of lumps
should be of more concern. After following
almost 10,000 women with benign lumps,
researchers found that those with cells that
looked different from normal cells are four
to five times more likely to develop breast
cancer. There are some other factors that
need to be taken into consideration as well,
such as age and a family history of cancer.
Due to recent discoveries, doctors can now
more accurately determine whose a strong
candidate for additional screenings or other
preventive measures.
In 1998, a drug, tamoxifen, was created and
it was said to decrease the risk of breast
cancer by 50 percent. The side effects of
hot flashes and blood clots were not
appealing and now another drug raloxifene is
just as effective and has fewer side
effects. As for cancer recurrences,
chemotherapy or radiation therapy is a good
alternative to prescription drugs. There is
also another drug, letrozole, that lowered
the risk of recurrences by 19 percent (than
those who took tamoxifen). For women that
have HER2-positive tumors, the drug
Herceptin lowered the risk by 52 percent.
There is also the yet to be approved
“lapatinib” which is a pill that shuts
down the activity of the HER2 protein.
About 22 percent of breast cancers are
ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). That means
that malignant cells are confined to the
milk ducts. The three most common treatments
are lumpectomy, radiation, and mastectomy. A
University of Michigan study has shown that
lumpectomy and radiation together are very
good options. A study at the University of
Minnesota showed that those who did not have
radiation had more than twice the risk.
The treatments for breast cancer are no
longer synonymous with nausea and fatigue
because new medications are faster and more
bearable. Women that have early stages of
cancer can opt for partial breast
irradiations (PBI). PBI is given over the
course of 5 days and is targeted so less
healthy tissue is effective. It provides a
more intense radiation dosage with milder
side effects. Chemotherapy is a good
treatment. It is a dose-dense chemotherapy
that spans out to every two weeks as opposed
to every three weeks so it's over faster.
There is an accelerated chemotherapy which
is oral chemotherapy rather than go to the
hospital on a consistent basis, patients can
take capecitabine pills every 12 hours for
two weeks, one week off, and the cycle
continues for 3 months.
Have an opinion or a question you would like
me to answer, then write me!
http://www.CarlHampton.com
