Chemotherapy

The use of chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer began in the 1940’s with the use of nitrogen mustard.  In the attempt to discover what is effective in chemotherapy, many new drugs have been developed and tried since then. Chemotherapy is used most often to describe drugs that kill cancer cells directly, and these drugs are sometimes referred to as “anti-cancer” drugs.
Today’s chemotherapy uses more than 100 drugs to treat cancer.  There are even more chemo drugs still under development and investigation.  Various chemotherapy drugs are available to treat breast cancer.  Breast cancer chemotherapy is made of powerful drugs that target and destroy fast-growing breast cancer cells.  The drugs may be used individually or in a combination to increase the effectiveness of the treatment.  Breast cancer chemotherapy is frequently used along with other treatments for breast cancer, such as surgery.  Chemotherapy may also be used as the primary treatment when surgery isn’t an option.  Chemotherapy can help you live longer and reduce your chances of recurrence. It also carries the risk of side effects.  Some of the side effects are temporary and mild but others more serious, and sometimes permanent.  Your doctor can help you decide whether chemotherapy for breast cancer is a good choice for you.  Chemotherapy drugs are given intravenously or orally for treating breast cancer.  The drugs enter the blood stream and travel to all parts of the body, thus reaching cancer cells that may have spread beyond the breast.
Chemotherapy is given in cycles of treatment; and the entire chemotherapy treatment generally lasts several months to one year, depending on the type of drugs given.  A period of recovery is granted after the chemotherapy is finished.
Your doctor considers a number of factors to determine whether and what kind of chemotherapy would be of benefit to you.  The higher your risk of recurrence or metastasis, the more likely chemotherapy will be of benefit. In some cases, characteristics of the breast cancer itself may suggest other more beneficial treatments.  Discuss your own treatment goals and preferences with your doctor.
Factors commonly considered include:
Tumor size and grade. The more advanced the tumor, the more likely chemotherapy may be useful in destroying any stray cancer cells.
Lymph node status. If breast cancer cells were found in your lymph nodes during or before surgery, this is an indication of a higher risk of metastasis and thus an indication for chemotherapy.
Age. Some studies suggest that breast cancer which occurs at a young age is more aggressive than is breast cancer that develops later in life. Thus, doctors may opt for adjuvant chemotherapy when treating younger women to decrease the chances of the cancer spreading to other areas of the body.
Previous treatments. Whether you’ve had chemotherapy before may affect your current treatment regimen.
Chronic health conditions. Certain health problems, such as heart disease or diabetes, may affect your choice of chemotherapy drugs.
Hormonal status. If your breast cancer is sensitive to the hormones estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR), hormone therapy — with drugs such as tamoxifen, fulvestrant (Faslodex) or aromatase inhibitors (Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin) — may be a better option for post-surgical adjuvant therapy or they may be considered in addition to chemotherapy.
HER2 status. If your breast cancer produces (expresses) too much of a growth-promoting protein known as human growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), your doctor may recommend drugs that specifically target this protein — trastuzumab (Herceptin), lapatinib (Tykerb) — in addition to chemotherapy.

To Mammo or Not To Mammo; That’s the Question

Most of the women who undergo routine mammogram screenings for breast cancer will never actually derive any real benefit from the radioactive procedure, but the majority of those who end up testing positive for tumors as a result of mammography will undergo needless treatments for malignancies that never would have led to any health problems.
These unsettling findings from a review recently published in the journal, The Lancet, found that for every woman whose life is supposedly saved as a result of early detection, three others undergo invasive surgery, toxic chemotherapy, or immune-destroying radiation treatments for benign tumors that never would have resulted in fatality.
This shocking information represents one more setback for the practice of mammography, which is still touted by the mainstream medical system as the premier method by which women have the best chance of not dying from breast cancer.  Not only are women not being told about the significant radaioactive risks associatied with getting mammograms, but they are also not being told that the procedure often detects noncancerous tumors.
According to the review of the study done in the U.K., 1,307 women avoid dying from breast cancer every single year in the U.K. as a result of being screened for breast cancer.  But another 3,971 women every year also end up opting for unnecessary, expensive, and highly-toxic treatment procedures for benign tumors as a result of mammography, which causes many of them to suffer irreparable damage to their immune health.
According to a similar study released early this year from Norway, as many as 25 percent of the breast cancers detected by mammography would have never even caused any health problems during the women’s lifetimes.  At the same time, mammography alsofails to detect as many as 10% of harmful breast turmors, indicating that it is a highly unreliable, and very toxic, breast cancer detection method that needs to be effectively phased out of mainstream use.
“Once you’ve decided to undergo mammography screening, you also have to deal with the consequences that you might be over-diagnosed,” says Dr. Metter Kalager, a breast surgeon at Telemark Hospital in Norway about the widespread problem of breast cancer over-diagnosis. “By then, I think, it’s too late. You have to get treated.”
The truth is that we’ve exaggerated the benefits of screening and we’ve ignored the harms.  Mammography helps some people but it leads others to be treated unnecessarily.

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• Breast Cancer
• My Breast Cancer Journey Blog

June 8, 2013

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Chemo Brain and More Chemo Brain

Research has proven that breast cancer survivors can experience problems with certain mental abilities several years after treatment, regardless of whether they were treated with chemotherapy plus radiation or radiation only.   In fact, there are indications that there may be common and treatment-specific ways that cancer therapies negatively affect cancer survivors’ mental abilities.
To compare the effects of different types of cancer treatment on such mental abilities, a study examined 62 breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy plus radiation, 67 patients treated with radiation only, and 184 women with no history of cancer.  Study participants completed neuropsychological assessments six months after completing treatment and again 36 months later, which is further out from the end of treatment than most previous studies of this type.
The study confirmed that chemotherapy can cause cognitive problems in breast cancer survivors that persist for three years after they finish treatment. In addition, the investigators found that breast cancer survivors, who had been treated with radiation and not chemotherapy, often experienced problems similar to those in breast cancer survivors treated with both chemotherapy and radiation.  (They did not find that hormonal therapy, such as tamoxifen, caused cognitive difficulties.)
These findings suggest that the problems some breast cancer survivors have with their mental abilities are not due just to the administration of chemotherapy. The findings also provide a more complete picture of the impact of cancer treatment on mental abilities than studies that did not follow patients as long or look at mental abilities in breast cancer survivors who had not been treated with chemotherapy.  This study gives voice to the many women who believe that they suffer from chemo brain.

Vitamin C and Cancer

The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require proof that dietary supplements are safe or effective, as long as they don’t claim that the supplements can prevent, treat, or cure any specific disease; and most supplements have not been tested to find out how they interact with medicines, foods, or other herbs and supplements.  Even though some reports of interactions and harmful effects may be published, full studies of interactions and effects aren’t often available.
Vitamin C supplements are generally considered safe.  Doses higher than 1,000 mg can cause diarrhea, nausea, heartburn, belly pain, and stomach cramps in some people, but the safe upper limit of vitamin C for adults is considered to be about 2,000 mg.  Most oncologists routinely recommend that people with cancer avoid gram-size doses of vitamin C during treatment.
Vitamin C is an essential vitamin the human body needs to function well.  It is a water-soluble vitamin that cannot be made by the body, and must be obtained from foods or other sources. Many studies have shown a link between eating foods rich in vitamin C, such as fruits and vegetables, and a reduced risk of cancer.
Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, a compound that helps block the action of unstable molecules known as free radicals, which can damage cells.  Vitamin C is thought by some to enhance the immune system by stimulating the activities of natural killer cells and anti-cancer agents.  Some claim that the vitamin can prevent a variety of cancers from developing, including lung, prostate, bladder, breast, cervical, intestinal, esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, and salivary gland cancers, as well as leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  Vitamin C is also said to prevent tumors from spreading, help the body heal after cancer surgery, enhance the effects of certain anti-cancer drugs, and reduce the toxic effects of other drugs used in chemotherapy.
Vitamin C is water-soluble, which means that the body uses what it needs and eliminates the rest.  Small amounts of vitamin C are needed for healthy skin, tendons, ligaments, bones, cartilage, and blood vessels, and for the healing of wounds and injuries.  It also helps to body absorb iron from foods.  A shortage of vitamin C causes scurvy, a disease marked by fatigue, fragile blood vessels bleeding, which can be fatal if not treated.  Vitamin C deficiency is very rare among people who eat a reasonably balanced diet.
Many scientific studies have shown that diets high in fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of developing cancers of the pancreas, esophagus, larynx, mouth, stomach, colon and rectum, breast, cervix, and lungs.  Many of these studies show people who eat foods to get a high level of vitamin C have about half as much cancer as those who have a low intake of these foods. Likewise, people with higher blood levels of vitamin C tend to have a lesser risk of developing cancer than do people with lower levels.  However, studies that observed large groups or people and clinical trials of vitamin C supplements have not shown the same strong protective effects against cancer.
Some oncologists believe that taking high doses of antioxidant vitamins may actually interfere with the effectiveness of radiation and some chemotherapy drugs.  However, no randomized clinical trials have yet been done in humans to test the effect of Vitamin C supplements during radiation therapy or chemotherapy.  Although high doses of vitamin C have been suggested as a cancer treatment, the available evidence from clinical trials has not shown any benefit.
The American Cancer Society recommends eating a variety of healthful foods, with most of them coming from plant sources, rather than supplements. It’s best to get vitamins and minerals from foods but supplements may be helpful for some people, such as pregnant women, women of childbearing age, and people with restricted food intakes.   If a supplement is taken, choose a balanced multivitamin/mineral supplement that contains no more than 100% of the “Daily Value” of most nutrients.

What Is The Difference Between IBC and Recurrent Breast Cancer?

What is inflammatory breast cancer?  The breast looks red and swollen and feels warm when inflammatory breast cancer occurs.  The redness and warmth occur because the cancer cells block the lymph vessels in the skin.  The skin of the breast may also show a pitted appearance. Inflammatory breast cancer may be stage IIIB, stage IIIC, or stage IV.  Treatment of inflammatory breast cancer may include the following:  Systemic chemotherapy.  Or systemic chemotherapy followed by surgery (breast-conserving surgery or total mastectomy), with lymph node dissection followed by radiation therapy.  Additional systemic therapy (chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or both) may be given.  Clinical trials testing new anticancer drugs, new drug combinations, and new ways of giving treatment may also be a treatment.
What is recurrent breast cancer?  Recurrent breast cancer is cancer that has recurred (come back) after it has been treated.  The cancer may come back in the breast, in the chest wall, or in other parts of the body.
Treatment of recurrent breast cancer in the breast or chest wall may include surgery (radical or modified radical mastectomy), radiation therapy, or both.  Systemic chemotherapy or hormone therapy may also be applied and a clinical trial of trastuzumab (Herceptin) combined with systemic chemotherapy may be used.

Herbs and Healing

How much do you know about herbs? This article will give you a little insight into the healing power of herbs. You probably cook with herbs, but maybe you’ll consider them as a supplement to your vitamins after reading this.
Did you know that wheatgrass gives you the chlorophyll of some 12 or more kilograms of broccoli with just one shot full? Wheatgrass acts as a blood purifier, and liver and kidney cleansing agent. After two weeks of daily use, blood and tissue oxygen levels improve, as does circulation.
Astragalus is a Chinese herb that boosts your immune system. Astragalus is known to stimulate body´s natural production of interferon. It also helps the immune system identify rogue cells. Work with the herb in both cancer and AIDS cases has been encouraging. The MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas conducted research showing that taking Astragalus when having radiotherapy doubled survival times.
Turmeric is a spice that has been shown to have significant anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory activity. That alone seems enough for certain hospitals in America to consider using it in the treatment of polyps and colon cancer. However new research shows that it can both shrink cancer tumors and inhibit blood supply growth to tumors. It is a powerful antioxidant with liver protective benefits, and outperformed several anti-inflammatory drugs without side-effects in research.
Echinacea is another known immune system booster that gained a populist reputation in treating colds.  There is research on its helpfulness with brain tumors apart from its abilities to increase the levels of certain immune white cells in the body.
Feverfew is an herb that research from Rochester University in New York showed to be more effective than the drug cytarabine in killing leukemia cells.
Milk Thistle has been known to e helpful to the liver, this herb has now been shown to be capable of protecting the liver during chemotherapy. Research in America showed that leukemia patients who took milk thistle had reduced liver toxicity and chemo side-effects. There is a little evidence that it has its own anti-cancer activity too.