BREAST CANCER
Popstar Kylie Minogue, who underwent mastectomy last year, is credited with having brought about more breast cancaer awareness among women than any hospital handout. Other world famous celebs who have fought breast cancer include singer Sheryl Crow and Betty Ford. Closer home we have event manager Deveika Bhojwani. The stats: 1 in 60 in.the age group 30 to 65 in rural India and 1 in 30 in urban areas are victims. The condition is targeting younger and younger women — the number of under-30s has
doubled in the last decade.
You are in the danger zone if you
have a history of breast cancer on either side of your family. Three of more direct relations in two generations, ups the risk by 50 per cent.
- have menstruated before 12
- have menopaused after 55
- have postponed childbirth until after 30
- are childless
- have more than three drinks a day so your risk is doubled
- have not breastfed adequately
- are frankly overweight
- carry the BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes
Ominous Clues
- a lump in the breast or under the arm
- tenderness in the breast
- blood-stained discharge from the nipple
- scaliness, dimpling or puckering of the skin around the nipple
- inversion of nipple
- change in general contour of the breast.
Confirmation
First remember, not every breast lump is cancerous; 80% are benign. Even if it is cancerous the breast can be saved, with lumpectomy or segmentectomy or reconstruction.
- A suspicious mammogram can be rechecked with
- an ultrasonography, to distinguish between fluid- filled and solid lump
- FNAC, a needle biopsy under local anaesthesia to examine the cells under microscope
- a biopsy of the lump itself
A breast only needs to go if the tumour is near the breast wall or has started spreading, although there are women who opt for a mastectomy if they are at high risk, before any lumps emerge.
The fight back plan
- Get to know your breasts at 20. Examine them sequentially from the periphery inwards with your palm.
- Have a mammography regularly after 50.
- Exercise and eat healthy to keep your weight down and lower estrogen-levels.
- If you’re married, have your children before you hit 30. Breast feed as long as possible.
- A blood test will determine if you carry the BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes.
Washington: A new study has shown that postmenopausal women who take aspirin and other analgesics regularly have lower estrogen levels, which could contribute to a decreased risk of breast or ovarian cancer.
“We observed some significant inverse associations between concentrations of several estrogens and the use of aspirin, aspirin plus non-aspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and all analgesics combined,” said Margaret A. Gates, Sc.D., research fellow at the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
“Our results suggest that among postmenopausal women, regular users of aspirin and other analgesics may have lower estrogen levels than non-users,” Gates added.
Gates and colleagues examined the association between use of aspirin, NSAIDs and acetaminophen and concentrations of estrogens and androgens among 740 postmenopausal women who participated in the Nurses” Health Study.
Frequency of all analgesic use was inversely associated with estradiol, free estradiol, estrone sulfate and the ratio of estradiol to testosterone.
Average estradiol levels were 10.5 percent lower among women who regularly used aspirin or non-aspirin NSAIDs. Similarly, free estradiol levels were 10.6 per cent lower and estrone sulfate levels were 11.1 percent lower among regular users of aspirin or other NSAIDs.
Among regular users of any analgesic (aspirin, NSAIDs or acetaminophen), levels of these hormones were 15.2 per cent, 12.9 per cent and 12.6 per cent lower, respectively, according to Gates.
These study results are published in ‘Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.’
Attention mothers; Feed your little daughters well as a new study has claimed that skinny young girls are at a greater risk of developing breast cancer later in life.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that girls underweight at the age of seven are more likely to develop aggressive types of tumours which are very difficult to treat when they get older than those who are larger in size.
The study, published today in the Breast Cancer Research journal, also showed that larger girls were less likely to develop what are known as “oestrogen receptor negative” tumours, one of the most deadly forms of the disease.
“It appears counterintuitive that a large body size during childhood can reduce breast cancer risk, because a large birth weight and a high adult BMI have been shown to otherwise elevate breast cancer risk,” lead author Jingmei Li said.
“There remain unanswered questions on mechanisms driving this protective effect,” she said, adding “given the strength of the associations and the ease of retrieval of information on childhood shape from old photographs, childhood body size is potentially useful for building breast cancer risk or prognosis models”.
In the study, which involved 6,000 women — half of whom were breast cancer patients, the team split the participants into three groups depending on whether they were ‘lean’, ‘medium’ or ‘large’ build when they were seven years old, the Daily Mail reported.
Surprisingly, they found that women who were bigger when younger were less likely to develop the disease in the menopause. Previous research has found that obese females are much more prone to breast cancer.
However, the scientists do not know why skinny girls are more likely to develop breast cancer but said their findings could have important implications in determining a woman’s risk.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and up to one in nine will get the disease at some point in their lives.
Breast thermography is one of the procedures that leads to early breast cancer detection. A thermography exam can also bring about a better understanding of underlying health issues that may contribute to breast cancer.
What is Breast Thermography?
- Breast thermography is a 15 minute non-invasive exam that tests the physiology of the breasts and surrounding areas. Thermography detects changes in the breasts like fibroids, vascular disease or infection.
Angiogenesis
- Thermography is also used in to determine the presence of angiogenesis, or a new formation of a blood vessel. Tumors grow when connected to blood vessels–thermography can display the first signs of this, so the tumor can be removed early.
Hormone Balance
- Years of over-exposure to estrogen is the main cause of breast cancer, according to Pacific Chiropractic and Research Center. A thermography exam can determine if there is too much estrogen in the breast tissue.
Family History
- According to BreastThermography.com, 75 percent of women who get breast cancer are not genetically predisposed. Abnormal thermography findings can help doctors discover early treatment options.
Younger Women
- According to Preventative Health Lab, 23 percent of all breast cancer develops in women under the age of 49; getting a thermography exam as part of a health checkup can give doctors an advantage in finding early treatments