Breast Articles

Dense Breasts…….very popular topic when speaking with patients at OC Breast Wellness.   What does it mean and am I getting the “run around” from the medical system about the quality of the exams that are covered by my insurance?   Bottom line, can a mammogram find a lesion in dense breast tissue?   Why did California finally implement a law?

SB 1538 requires that following a mammogram, women with dense breast tissue be informed of the following:
• That they have dense breast tissue;
• That dense breast tissue can make it harder to evaluate the results of a mammogram;
• That it is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer;
• That information about breast density is given to discuss with their doctor; and
• That a range of screening options are available.

Once you knew you had dense breast tissue, would you have a mammogram?

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In an effort to curb widespread overtreatment of cancers that are not life-threatening, an expert group recommends a revolutionary new approach to diagnosis, including a narrower definition of the disease itself. In fact, some common disorders would no longer be called cancer at all.

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Cancer immunotherapy — using the body’s own immune system to fight tumor cells — may be a major part in a cure for cancer, researchers in Britain say.

Bent Jakobsen, the Danish-born chief scientific officer of Immunocore who started to study T-cells 20 years ago while working at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, says cancer has been largely treated by slicing (surgery), poisoning (chemotherapy) or burning (radiation). All try to spare healthy tissue from irreparable damage while attempting to kill every cancer cell.

“Immunotherapy is radically different,” Jakobsen told The Independent exclusively. “It doesn’t do away with the othercancer treatments by any means, but it adds something to the arsenal that has one unique feature — it may have the potency to actually cure cancer.”

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I’m truly excited to be bringing you this information today about the miraculous healing abilities of aloe vera. First off, in case you don’t know, let me emphasize that I don’t sell aloe vera products of any kind, I haven’t been paid to write this article, and I don’t earn any commissions from the sale of any products mentioned here. I am, however, an enthusiastic supporter of natural medicine, and I personally grow and eat aloe vera plants in Tucson, Arizona.

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In an overlooked study first published in 2008, for the first time, using a special liposomal form of oral-dose vitamin C, researchers in Britain demonstrated it is possible to achieve cancer-killing blood concentrations of this vitamin without undesirable side effects.

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Click here to learn how to make Liposomal Vitamin C yourself

 

The anticancer effects of IP6 are turning out to be nothing short of astounding. Research is showing that besides reducing cell proliferation and increasing the differentiation of malignant cells, IP6 can often restore cancerous cells to normality.

What is IP6?

IP6, also known as inositol hexophosphate or phytic acid, is a sugar molecule with six phosphate groups attached. It is composed of inositol (one of the B vitamins) bound with six molecules of phosphorous. IP6 was first identified in 1855, but has only recently been researched as a preventative and cure for cancer as well as heart and liver diseases, kidney stones, Parkinson’s disease, and more. It is also a powerful antioxidant, immune system enhancer, and booster of natural killer cells. Foods that are significant sources of IP6 include dried beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, rice, wheat germ, corn and sesame.

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The studies just keep rolling on in with more and more evidence showing that the breast cancer screening ritual known as mammography is not everything that it is cracked up to be.

One of the latest studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), for instance, analyzed more than 30 years’ worth of data on mammography and found that nearly 1.5 million women have been needlessly treated for cancers that were not at all harmful or that technically did not even exist.

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A research team from the University of Minnesota‘s Masonic Cancer Center discovered that, when given an injectable extract form of Tripterygium wilfordii, mice with pancreatic tumors experienced complete healing and recovery in fewer than five weeks. Even after discontinuing the treatment, the healed mice indefinitely maintained their healthy, cancer-free state with no signs of tumor resurgence or relapse.

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New research suggests that a compound abundant in the Mediterranean diet takes away cancer cells’ “superpower” to escape death.

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By altering a very specific step in gene regulation, this compound essentially re-educates cancer cells into normal cells that die as scheduled.

One way that cancer cells thrive is by inhibiting a process that would cause them to die on a regular cycle that is subject to strict programming. This study in cells, led by Ohio State University researchers, found that a compound in certain plant-based foods, called apigenin, could stopbreast cancer cells from inhibiting their own death.

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Typically, cancer is much more likely to develop as you get older. The non-profit BreastCancer.org even states:²

“ … the aging process is the biggest risk factor for breast cancer. That’s because the longer we live, there are more opportunities for genetic damage (mutations) in the body. And as we age, our bodies are less capable of repairing genetic damage.”

So why is it that so many younger women are now being struck by this potentially deadly disease?

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Nearly all forms of breast cancer can be detected by a mammogram but the rarest and most aggressive form is also among the hardest to diagnose — and the deadliest.

Inflammatory breast cancer resembles an infection or bruising to the surface of the breast. The disease occurs in only about two of every 100,000 breast cancer cases nationwide and is almost always diagnosed in later stages, according to medical oncologist Dr. Sue Prill, who will manage the new breast cancer treatment center at Bristol Regional Medical Center.

“Inflammatory breast cancer is one we fortunately don’t see very often. Up until a few years ago, it was considered 100 percent fatal,” Prill said. “It has very bad characteristics and it’s very aggressive.”

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Cancer ⁱ/ˈkænsər/, known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a broad group of various diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the body through the lymphatic system orbloodstream. Not all tumors are cancerous. Benign tumors do not grow uncontrollably, do not invade neighboring tissues, and do not spread throughout the body. There are over 200 different known cancers that afflict humans.^[1]

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More young women are being diagnosed with advanced, metastatic breast cancer than were three decades ago, a new study suggests – although the overall rate of cancers in that group is still small.

One in 173 women will develop breast cancer before she turns 40, researchers said, and the prognosis tends to be worse for younger patients.

 

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Recently, a survey of three decades of screening published in November in The New England Journal of Medicine found that mammography’s impact is decidedly mixed: it does reduce, by a small percentage, the number of women who are told they have late-stage cancer, but it is far more likely to result in overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, including surgery, weeks of radiation and potentially toxic drugs. And yet, mammography remains an unquestioned pillar of the pink-ribbon awareness movement. Just about everywhere I go — the supermarket, the dry cleaner, the gym, the gas pump, the movie theater, the airport, the florist, the bank, the mall — I see posters proclaiming that “early detection is the best protection” and “mammograms save lives.” But how many lives, exactly, are being “saved,” under what circumstances and at what cost? Raising the public profile of breast cancer, a disease once spoken of only in whispers, was at one time critically important, as was emphasizing the benefits of screening. But there are unintended consequences to ever-greater “awareness” — and they, too, affect women’s health.

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Are mammograms useless? That’s just one of the turn-your-world-upside-down questions raised in a provocative and personal New York Times Magazine piece about the fight against breast cancer, published online Thursday and set to hit newsstands this weekend.

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