Please give a free Mammogram

Your click on the "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button helps fund free mammograms for women in need — low-income, inner-city and minority women whose awareness of breast cancer and opportunity for help is often limited. Your click is paid for by site sponsors, and mammogram funding is provided to clinics throughout the U.S. through the efforts of the National Breast Cancer Foundation .
Early Detection: Do You Know The Facts?How You Can Help In Mere Seconds — Every Day The Breast Cancer Site provides a feel-good way to help promote awareness of breast cancer and provide free mammograms for women in need every day — through easy and quick online activities.
With a simple, daily click of the pink "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button at The Breast Cancer Site, visitors help to provide free mammograms for women in need. Visitors pay nothing. Mammograms are provided by our charitable partners.
Please remember to click every day to fund free mammograms and give hope to women in need. Every click counts toward the goal of early detection, which allows for the best possible treatment options. Thanks to Tony Dollars and his Compassion Network blog for this tip!

Modern Treatment for Breast Cancer

As with the treatment of similar cancers, breast cancer treatment aims to keep safe the healthy tissue while simultaneously killing the cancerous tumor at its point of origination and any other cancers that may have spread to other parts of the body. With great thanks and gratitude to researchers and medical professionals, patients suffering from breast cancer now have more options for effective treatment. Of course these options depend on several factors concerning the type, stage, and size of the tumor found. Health professionals attribute this to ground breaking research, education of the general public, and early detection initiatives.

continued here

Chemotherapy for breast cancer can cause heart damage

Recently I was informed that a family member has sustained heart damage as a diect result of chemotherapy for breast cancer. With just a little research I came upon this article that I wanted to share with my readers:
Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Increases Heart Damage Risk
NEW YORK JAN 05, 2006 (Reuters Health) - Chemotherapy, especially anthracycline-based therapy, for breast cancer in older women increases their risk of developing cardiomyopathy.
Doxorubicin and other chemotherapeutic agents are increasingly used in the adjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer patients, the authors explain, but long-term sequelae in such patients have received little attention.
Dr. Dawn L. Hershman from Columbia University, New York City and colleagues evaluated chemotherapy use and cardiotoxicity among 5575 women 65 years old or older in the general population diagnosed with stage I or II breast cancer.
Increasing age and black race were associated with higher rates of heart disease in these patients, the authors report, and patients with heart disease before the breast cancer diagnosis were 2.4 times more likely to experience heart disease during follow-up.
After adjusting for these factors, women who received chemotherapy had a 22% increase in the rate of heart disease, a 55% increase in the rate of cardiomyopathy, and a 20% increase in the rate of congestive heart failure, the report indicates.
The combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy was associated with a slightly higher risk of heart disease (33%), the researchers report in the December 1st issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Among the chemotherapeutic agents used, doxorubicin was associated with the greatest increase in cardiomyopathy risk (2.5-fold), the results indicate. The incidence of cardiomyopathy in the first year after diagnosis ranged from 1.55% for women who didn't receive chemotherapy to 4.09% for women who received doxorubicin, the investigators observe.
"The elevated risk of cardiac disease associated with adjuvant chemotherapy, which has been observed among participants in clinical trials, is also present among elderly breast cancer patients in a population-based sample," the authors conclude. "Given the prevalence of anthracycline regimens in the current adjuvant breast cancer setting, some patients may benefit from increased cardiac monitoring."
SOURCE: J Clin Oncol 2005;23:8597-8605
Knowledge is power! We must inform ourselves! Hope this helps you and your loved ones!

Mammogram or MRI?

In Most Cases, MRI Not Indicated for Breast Cancer Screening

Q: I'm still getting yearly screening mammograms, but I heard that breast MRIs are better at detecting breast cancer and have a lower radiation level than mammograms.

Should I start getting yearly MRIs instead?

A: Breast MRIs have very limited indications and have not been approved as a screening modality for most patients.

Screening MRIs are only indicated for those who are considered very high risk. You are considered high risk if you have a known gene mutation that significantly increases the risk for breast cancer (BRCA 1 or 2), if you are a probable carrier of this gene because of family history, or if you have a calculated lifetime risk of breast cancer greater than 20-25% (this is something your doctor can calculate for you).

"For most women at high risk, screening with MRI and mammograms should begin at age 30 years and continue for as long as a woman is in good health," according to the American Cancer Society. "But because the evidence is limited regarding the best age at which to start screening, this decision should be based on shared decision making between patients and their health providers, taking into account personal circumstances and preferences."
courtesy of www.healthlink.com.

Diet and breast cancer: connection?

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study suggests that women who eat diets rich in meat and dairy may have a decreased risk of breast cancer, while those who bulk up on fiber, fruits and vegetables show a lower risk of ovarian cancer.
The findings, published in the International Journal of Cancer, add to questions surrounding the role of diet in women's risk of the cancers.
High alcohol intake has been consistently linked to breast cancer risk, but when it comes to other facets of the diet, studies have yielded conflicting results, according to the researchers on the current work, led by Dr. Valeria Edefonti of the University of Milan.

1. The most important suggestions are:
2. Maintain a healthy weight.
3. Eat a diet that's low in fat and includes lots of fruits and vegetables.
4. Avoid red and processed meats (ham, bacon, lunchmeat), simple carbohydrates, and salt.
5. If you have a baby, breastfeed for at least the first 6 months.
6. Don't smoke.
7. Avoid alcohol.
8. Do moderate exercise regularly (every day if you can).
9. Besides helping to lower your risk of breast and other cancers, following these recommendations will improve your overall health. There's only one of YOU and you deserve the best health and life you can have. You're worth it!

Breast Cancer and Depression

(from an article by Patricia Lund, Ph.D.)
As women traverse the breast cancer path, depression is a common companion. For many women, questions naturally arise such as "Am I depressed, or is this a normal reaction to my diagnosis and treatment?" "Am I mentally ill?" "Is what I am feeling due to breast cancer or to chemotherapy or tamoxifen?" "What do I do about these feelings?"
Here, several women discussed the feelings they were experiencing. Common descriptions included not being able to get tasks done, being extremely tired or lacking in energy, having no motivation, crying a lot, not being able to concentrate, feeling that memories and decisions were moving in slow motion, or feeling chronically sleepy. Some complained of difficult adjustments in self image ("I don't know who I am anymore"), that life seemed blurry, like everything was on the other side of a glass curtain, or that life seemed too loose and open-ended, no longer comprehensible. In a colorful turn of phrase, one woman described her brain as feeling like it were made of Swiss cheese.
It is important to distinguish depression from sadness. Depression is much more than just being very sad; there is a deep sense of hopelessness which the depressed person sees as permanent. The person feels cut off from the emotional content of experiences, so that life loses its normal sense of connectedness. A depressed person often cannot remember that things were okay in the past, and may experience truly agonizing emotional pain. There is a distinct quality to clinical depression as compared to normal variations in mood; a loss of the sense of control which can in turn lead to increasing stress. Depression is often accompanied by physiological changes such as disruption of normal sleep patterns or changes in appetite.
In summary, the answer to the question "Can breast cancer lead to depression?" is a clear and unequivocal "Yes". If you suspect you or a loved one is depressed, there are many actions that can be taken. First, see a doctor or a qualified therapist who can provide an objective assessment of the condition. If there is a danger of feeling like ending one's life, it is necessary to obtain immediate help from a physician who specializes in crisis care to avert an irreversible action that is a result of the disease. It is important to carefully check for possible physical causes such as a thyroid condition, side effects of medications or menopausal changes. From this point on, there are many options to pursue including antidepressant medications, psychological counseling or therapy, acupuncture or herbal therapies, nutritional changes, and self-help groups. The important thing to remember is that depression after a diagnosis of breast cancer is normal, treatable, and can even help motivate positive changes in one's approach to and outlook on life.

Breast Cancer and Music Therapy

There have been studies showing that music therapy can help people who've had cancer to feel less anxious and more relaxed, and to feel less pain.
In a very preliminary 2001 British study of music therapy in 29 cancer patients, participants felt a higher sense of well-being and less tension during one session. Researchers measured improvements in immune function and decreases in the amount of the stress hormone cortisol.
A 2001 study of 20 patients awaiting breast biopsy showed that, when some of the patients had a 20-minute music therapy session while in the pre-operative waiting room, their anxiety and respiratory rates were much lower than those of the patients who did not have a music therapy session.
In a small 1991 study in Utah, 15 cancer patients taking pain-relieving medicines were assigned to receive different kinds of music therapy for 6 days to find out if music could help to further reduce their pain. Results showed pain decreases in 47% of the patients.