Cancer involves mutations, or changes, in genes. In most people affected by cancer, these genetic changes happen after birth later in life. In Hereditary Cancer, the cancer is caused by a genetic mutation that the person was born with. Some cancers, such as breast, ovary and colon tend to be hereditary, but that doesn’t mean that you will develop a cancer in one of these areas if you have an immediate family member that has experienced the disease. Not all genetic mutations will develop into cancer, however, the mutation will increase the chance that the person will have a higher risk of developing cancer.

Only 10% of all breast cancer cases are thought to be hereditary. Some of the factors that increase the occurrence of hereditary breast cancer are breast cancer before age 45, male breast cancer, cancer in both breasts and many cases of breast and/or ovarian cancer on one side of the family. If you have two relatives from the same side of your family with breast cancer, your risk of getting the disease can be increased. However it does not mean that you will definitely get breast cancer. You also must keep in mind that the risk for hereditary cancer can be passed on from your mother or your father. You must look at both sides of the family.

The two hereditary mutations that are looked at for breast cancer are BRCA1 and BRCA2. The test for these two genetic factors are done by taking a blood sample. Both of these BRCA mutations (BReast CAncer 1 and 2) are associated with breast and ovarian cancers.

So what factors should you consider when thinking about genetic testing? The age and onset of breast cancer. What other types of cancer are present. What other family members have/had cancer and their relationship to you. When you meet with a genetic counselor, they will go over your family’s medical history and information. This will include first-degree relatives, such as your parents, siblings and children. second-degree relatives like grandparents, aunts and uncles and your third-degree relatives or cousins.

Genetic testing can help a breast cancer patient make decisions about types of treatment and follow-care. A woman with the one of the BRCA mutations may decide to have both breasts removed completely to help reduce the risk of reoccurrence. Having your healthy breasts or ovaries removed to prevent cancer is called a “prophylactic surgery” and many women who test positive for the genetic mutations decide to go that route. They may just decide to take Tamoxifen to lower their risk.

Not only can women take advantage of risk reduction techniques based on the results of their genetic testing, there are also increased surveillance tools that can help high risk individuals with early detection. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and ultrasound are two tools that can be combined with a mammogram to detect breast cancer in its most treatable stage.

Not every person who carries a genetic mutation will develop cancer. You must remember that genetic testing does not detect breast cancer and it will not tell you if you will get breast cancer in your lifetime. The decision to participate in genetic testing is very personal and there is no right or wrong choice in making the decision to have it done.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to breast-cancer.treatment-and-guides.com/ Breast Cancer

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In the past, doctors usually felt that it was better for their patients to have limited access to their medical reports. Doctors wanted to interpret the medical jargon because they were worried that their patients might misinterpret and possibly distort the results they were given. However, today, this thinking had changed among most doctors. Every breast cancer patient has the right to read her pathology report, even if it holds bad news. It is important that doctors help their patients understand their bodies so that they can become an active participant in their own healing team

It is important that breast cancer specialists work closely with their breast pathologist to develop and format a report that will provide consistent and relevant information. When a second opinion is sought, it is important to review a patient’s cancer tissue along with the original pathology report, which includes a description of the tissue received in the laboratory. This is also known as the macroscopic description of the cancer tissue.

It should be noted that only the original pathologist has the opportunity to view and describe the original piece of tumor. After this description is completed, the tumor is sliced into smaller pieces to make slices for further microscopic examination of the tumor. While subsequent doctors can review the slides, they must still rely on the original description of the tumor itself. It is essential for this description to accompany the slides for an accurate second opinion; it is important to the treatment plan that doctors will come up and present to breast cancer patients.

A breast cancer pathology report may contain the following information:

a preoperative diagnosis;

gross description of the breast cancer tissue and the axillary lymph node tissue;
a microscopic description, if it is invasive, a description of the cancer cells;
and a final diagnosis, its anatomic localization, size of the specimen and the tumor; cancer stage and grade, presence of microcalcification (calcium depositions in the cancer tissue), nipple involvement and presence of spread to the lymph nodes.

The vast majority of breast cancer originates from the lining cells (epithelium) of the breast duct or the secretory cells at the terminal end of the breast duct. These malignancies are termed carcinomas. A rare variant of breast cancer is known as sarcoma, which involves malignancies of the stromal cells of the breast. The treating oncologist would go over this pathology report and apply the information from the report to the cancer patient. Significant data in addition to this report would be the patient’s age, whether or not she has been on previous hormone replacement therapy, her previous medical history and so on.

Reasonable conclusion from a pathology report may be that a breast cancer patient is a good candidate for breast conservation therapy with a low probability for recurrence after radiotherapy. The risk of systemic cancer spread in this particular cancer is approximately 20 percent depending on the degree of lymph node involvement. If the patient is postmenopausal, an antiestrogenic agent, for example, tamoxifen alone or following a regimen of cytotoxic chemotherapy may be a reasonable choice for systemic therapy.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to breast-cancer.treatment-and-guides.com/ Breast Cancer

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If you want to know the latest prostate cancer news you will have to use the Internet to get this information. Although the Web may be a difficult place at times to locate specific information, there are ways to get the latest prostate cancer treatment news right from your computer. It’s even possible with RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to have that news delivered right to your computer every day.

I thought of giving you some of the prostate cancer news but it would be yesterday’s news so to speak and be of little value as time wore on. Instead, here are a few ideas on finding the latest prostate cancer treatment news yourself anytime you want to.

To get started you will need to visit one of the larger search engines, like MSN, Yahoo.com, or Google and will begin a search for news specific information. Although you may have use a search engine to find things on the Web, many search engines also have an option to look for news. By selecting news, you’re limiting your search to only those sites that have the latest information you may be looking for.

So once on the search engine home page and after selecting a news type search, you’re ready to begin locating your prostate cancer treatment information.

After doing that, then type in the information in the space provided. In this case, type in “prostate cancer” in the space provided. When you have done this, then click the search button. This will return all the latest news articles about prostate cancer, but we can do better by refining our search a little.

To refine our search to get the latest news on prostate cancer treatments, you would enter the following into the box

“prostate cancer” “new treatment ” then hit enter.

Be certain to use the quotes are you will get a lot more news that isn’t nearly as targeted as our interest is only in new treatments for prostate cancer. Without the quotes, we may get information on all types of cancer and all treatments, no matter new. The quote marks are important, so that the search engine will know that you want new treatments concerning prostate cancer.

The between the prostate cancer in new treatment phrases tells your computer system to bring you news that has “prostate cancer” AND “new treatment” in the article. This is the absolutely best way to find prostate cancer news on the Internet.

Another option is to manually review popular news sites such as www.healthfinder.gov and health.yahoo.com/.

If you want your news on any new treatments for prostate cancer to be delivered to your system automatically, consider using a news aggregator and RSS feed. This bit of technology can provide regular updates on any new prostate cancer treatment that’s mentioned in the news or health journals and deliver about information write to your desktop.

Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia has a with of news aggregators available for your use at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/List_of_news_aggregators.

There are of course the old media and methods of staying updated about new treatment options. Of course, this means reviewing newspapers, magazines and journals manually. The good news once again however, is that a news aggregator can do this review of all online editions of these resources

So, although you may think the Web is nothing more than advertisements and spam e-mail, you will find that its search capabilities can provide a fantastic array of useful information on any subject, including new prostate cancer treatments and advancements.

Abigail Franks writes on a variety of subjects for more info on prostate cancer visit prostate-cancer-treatment-expert.com/ prostate-cancer-treatment-expert.com and prostate-cancer-treatment-expert.com prostate-cancer-treatment-expert.com/prostate-cancer-new-treatment.html

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Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a protein produced by the prostate gland. It is measured in the blood stream and is a useful tool for following men who have been treated for prostate cancer. Does a PSA elevation after radiation treatment, be it a prostate seed implant and/or external beam radiation therapy, always signify disease recurrence?

In the past, a PSA elevation after a prostate seed implant or external beam radiation therapy was considered to be a harbinger of a prostate cancer relapse, often prompting expensive tests and invoking a great deal of patient anxiety. Then, when the PSA level climbed to10 ng/ml or greater, men were placed on hormonal therapy. Since the latter is associated with a number of unpleasant side effects, it is desirable to refrain from using hormonal therapy unless necessary. The question then arises: when does an increase in the PSA level not signify that cancer has returned?
There is a phenomenon known as a PSA bounce, in which the PSA level jumps up within one to three years after the man has completed radiation therapy. The PSA level eventually returns to the baseline it attained just after treatment. PSA bounce may be caused by death of the damaged cancer cells that release their PSA.

A PSA bounce usually begins with less than a one-point (less than 1 ng/ml) rise in the PSA level. Also, elevations of the PSA level after three years are less likely to be part of a bounce, and unlike a bounce, rises of the PSA level by more than 1.2ng/ml are less likely to drop back to their starting points.

A recent study collected data on 7,500 men who were treated for prostate cancer with radiation therapy. Nearly half of these men were found to have a PSA bounce. However, there was no adverse effect on their survival. In fact, these men fared just as well as men whose PSA did not bounce. Also, patients who show such a PSA bounce less than two years after treatment may be less likely to have cancer return later.

More good news is now that physicians are aware that an elevation in the PSA level does not necessarily mean prostate cancer has recurred, men whose PSA bounces after radiation therapy can be followed by their doctors, who can repeat the PSA blood test six months later.

Dr. Kornmehl is the medical director of Radiation Oncology at Passaic Beth Israel Regional Medical Center, Passaic, NJ and author of the critically acclaimed consumer health book, “The Best News About Radiation Therapy” (M. Evans, 2004). Her website is RTSupportDoc.com RTSupportDoc.com.

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There are different types of mesothelioma asbestos diseases because the asbestos can damage various parts of the body. These are named for their location in the body as well as for their progression.

Some of these mesothelioma asbestos diseases are:

Pleural mesothelioma – This is the most talked about form of mesothelioma cancer as it invades the inner lining of the lungs and causes respiratory symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is the most common form of this disease.

Peritoneal mesothelioma – In the body, there is a sac that keeps the body parts separate from the skin in order to protect them and to cushion them called the peritoneum. When the asbestos has damaged this lining of the body, it’s referred to as peritoneal mesothelioma. Symptoms often include abdominal pain, weight loss, problems with bowels, ascites (fluid in the abdomen), and sometimes a mass is palpable. This cancerous disease can be hard to detect as the symptoms are vague.

Pericardial mesothelioma – This is a cancer that affects the sac that is surrounding the heart, or the pericardium. When this lining is affected, patients can have problems with their blood pressure in addition to respiratory problems.Some patients will also have troubles with esophageal mesothelioma cancer which affects the throat of the patient. These kinds of mesothelioma asbestos diseases can cause troubles with swallowing and eating.

There are rare forms of benign mesothelioma too that do not technically have the cancerous symptoms and cell growth, but is still dangerous for breathing and the disease can affect your quality of life.

The main concern with each of these mesothelioma diseases is the spread of the asbestos related disease to other parts of the body. If the cancer has spread, it can become more difficult to treat or require more aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

While there isn’t one part of the body that is more reactive to the cancer, any cancerous spreads in the and around the heart and lungs are going to be the most serious of the three asbestos diseases.

These many types of mesothelioma asbestos diseases remind us that the exposure to asbestos is far more dangerous than we could have thought. And that if you feel you were exposed at any point in your life, you may want to check with your doctor about getting tested.

About the Author:

Dave Casey writes for Mesothelioma-Adviser.com, the web’s premier guide on

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