After breast cancer diagnosis, time is of the essence to ensure recovery. Digest the news; then start learning, so you’re comfortable with your informed choices for breast cancer treatment.

Building Your Team

Before choosing surgery, you build a breast cancer treatment team. You need surgeons, oncologists, anesthesiologist, and radiologist. If you’re able, you are the leader of this team. You have to live with the choices made.

Breast surgeon - recommends and performs breast surgery such as mastectomy or lumpectomy under general anesthesia, and a sentinel node biopsy.

Oncologist - also recommends which surgical option is best. Recommends chemotherapies and follows treatment.

Anesthesiologist - usually on hospital staff, unless you want to choose your own.

Radiologist - performs the sentinel node biopsy (where 2-3 lymph nodes in the armpit or breast are surgically removed) is also on hospital staff.

Plastic surgeon - performs reconstruction if you want it, during or well after mastectomy.

Radiation oncologist - manages radiation therapy. Wait till after surgery to find.

First Breast Cancer Treatment: Surgery

Lumpectomy - usually recommended when there is a single, small lump. The lump and the margin around it are surgically removed under general anesthesia.

* Advantage: You have a small scar, usually.

* Disadvantages: You undergo radiation therapy afterwards; because radiation can cause lumps, you may have more biopsies in the future.

Mastectomy - removes breast tissue, comprised mainly of fat, under general anesthesia. Surrounding tissues are undisturbed.

* Advantages: You need no further biopsies on that side; you probably avoid radiation therapy if cancer is detected early.

* Disadvantages: You have asymmetry, and this may temporarily affect sex life or self-image. With psychological adjustment or reconstruction, these disadvantages can disappear.

Breast reconstruction - during/after a mastectomy using techniques such as DIEP, where abdominal fat and skin are transferred to the chest, to shape a new breast. This is not cosmetic surgery; it’s part of treatment.

* Advantages: feeling and looking restored; getting a tummy tuck and a breast lift on the other breast.

Breast Cancer Treatment After Surgery

The oncologist considers the information from the various tests. The oncologist stages the cancer, and recommends various breast cancer treatments. The oncologist can refer you to a psychologist or support group to allay anxiety about treatment.

Radiation therapy - usually started after recovery from lumpectomy. It is precisely administered to the breast (and perhaps lymph nodes) in order to kill cancerous cells, while avoiding damage to the rest of the body. Sessions are a few minutes, once a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks.

* Short-term side effects: fatigue, breast soreness, redness, swelling.

* Long-term side effects: breast shrinkage, tanning, lumpiness.

Chemotherapy - started after all radiation is complete. Drugs which kill or disable cancer cells are given cyclically, with time off between treatments, for 3 to 6 months. The chemotherapy visit usually is outpatient, lasting 1 to 6 hours. Some drugs are taken orally at home, sometimes as a permanent regime.

* Side effects: hair loss, nausea/vomiting, nerve or muscle pain, infection, weight gain, fatigue, difficulty sleeping.

Hormone Therapy - taken orally at home; both treats and prevents recurrence in some cases.

Exercise, diet and lifestyle changes help recovery significantly.

Survival After Therapy

With 2 million breast cancer survivors in America, breast cancer is beatable. Breast cancer treatment requires internal fortitude to reach recovery. You emerge with relief, gratitude and hope.

For more information on breast cancer try visiting breastcanceranalysis.com breastcanceranalysis.com - a website that specializes in providing breast cancer related information and resources including information on breastcanceranalysis.com/breastcancertreatment.html breast cancer treatment.

Tags: breast cancer, cancer treatment, chemotherapy, mastectomy

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Tags: breast cancer, cancer treatment, chemotherapy, mastectomy

Esophagus cancer occurs in the esophagus near the stomach. Tiny tumors develop which will eventually spread to other parts of the body. It is possible to prevent esophagus cancer by managing your acid reflux symptoms as cancer is caused when the lining of the esophagus is removed by the acid in the stomach. Very often, your body will cover the inside of the esophagus with protective tissue. However, this new tissue could become cancerous.

There are many warning signals of the presence of esophagus cancer; including vomiting, loss of voice, stomach problems, and blood in urine. If you notice that you have any of these symptoms for a prolonged period of time, do see a doctor. Early detection is important to getting treated before you experience permanent damage to your esophagus.

If you have acid reflux symptoms, then you can prevent esophagus cancer by avoiding certain foods. Generally, refrain from foods that cause stomach to produce more acid than it should. Hence, carbonated drinks, such as soda, are not recommended. If you drink a can of soda once a day, more acid will be produced in the stomach to break down the soda and make it digestible. But the stomach acid produced will be in excess and will travel up and down the esophagus. This can have disastrous effects. To manage acid reflux symptoms, there are also over the counter and prescription drugs available.

Esophagus cancer is a very painful condition. You may have problems eating and holding down food. In some cases, to prevent the cancer from spreading, surgery has to be done on the esophagus to remove the infected tissue. This surgery can permanently damage the esophagus and make it harder to swallow, talk, and digest food. In this situation, you would have to be fed through a tube and/or on a liquid diet. Hence, getting this cancer is very uncomfortable and depressing.

The chance of developing this cancer increases if you have acid reflux symptoms. You should discuss with your doctor if stomach acid becomes a problem. Taking good care of your esophagus can most certainly help you prevent cancer.

Too much acid in your stomach?

Tags: prevent cancer

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Did you know that men can also have breast cancer? Be surprised and amazed but it is a matter of fact. Men, just like women, can also develop cancer cells in their breasts. Only, the chances of men having one is much lower than that of women’s. Moreover, the reason most people, even most men themselves, think that breast cancer is only for women is the very low incidence or recorded cases of male breast cancer. In America, male breast cancer accounts for only 1 percent of cases of breast cancer, and represents about 0.2% of all malignancies in men. This figure is far from tens of thousands of cases for women each year. In 2005, roughly 1,690 cases of male breast cancer were recorded in the United States, 460 of which led to death.

The principle behind male breast cancer is not that hard to understand. Basically, what happens when a woman develops a breast cancer is largely the same event leading to a breast cancer for men. What probably confuses people is the word “breast” for it has always been associated with femininity and seldom, if ever, with masculinity. So for both men and women startled with the idea of male breast cancer, the first thing to do is to understand cancer in itself, independent of gender.

Cancer, as most people already know, is a disease caused by an abnormal growth of cells. As these cancer cells increase in number, they form masses of tissues that the body does not need– tumor. If the growth is greatly uncontrollable, damages in the health system occur and can even lead to death, if not attended immediately and properly. The process of developing cancer cells can happen in the different parts of the body– men’s breasts included.

At the onset of physiological development in men, male hormones (such as testosterone) produced by the testes deters the growth of breast tissue and the development of lobules. The male breast is made up of predominantly small, undeveloped ducts and a small amount of fat and connective tissue, unlike that of women’s breasts. Male breast cancer happens when there is an uncontrollable growth of the small amount of non-functioning breast tissues. These breast tissues do not produce milk and are found in the area directly behind the nipple, on the chest wall.

Just like in women, the causes of male breast cancer are still unknown even to this date. What are identified by years of studies and researches are just the risk factors for developing male breast cancer. The first contributing factor is exposure to radiation. Exposure to ionizing radiation or radiation therapy for previous illnesses is identified as a factor that triggers growth of breast tissues. Hyperestrogenism is also a risk factor. From the word itself, there is an overproduction of the female hormone estrogen in a man’s body. Men, by nature, really have estrogen in their bodies. But when the amount increases beyond what the body needs, chances of developing a breast cancer also increase. Actually, majority of male breast cancer cases is attributed to this risk factor. Men with Klinefelter’s syndrome (abnormal sex chromosome) and cirrhosis are likely to develop breast cancer because of stimulated estrogen production. Genetics also play a great role. Men with female relatives who had breast cancer are at greater risks of developing breast cancer.

Male breast cancer has different types, most common of which is the infiltrating ductal carcinoma. This is the breast cancer type when the cancer started from the tubular ducts and has spread to the surrounding area. Opposite of this is ductal carcinoma in situ, the second type. The others are Paget’s disease (affecting the skin of the nipple), papillary carcinoma, inflammatory carcinoma, and medulla carcinoma. Symptoms of breast cancer include the presence of a lump (usually right beneath the nipple), nipple discharge (more likely to happen in men than women), nipple retraction, and skin ulceration. In advanced cases, symptoms like malaise, weight loss, and weakness are commonly present.

Like breast cancer in women, male breast cancer is commonly treated with mastectomy. Mastectomy is a surgery which removes the lining over the chest muscles and portions of the axillary lymph nodes. This then is followed by adjuvant therapies like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormonal therapy. The combination of possible treatments is defined and administered by medical experts based on the patient’s cancer stage and overall health condition.

The National Cancer Institute has made it clear that in order to mitigate the damages of male breast cancer, and all cancers at that, early detection is a must. This then should send a message to all men that it is high time for them to recognize that their breasts may be at risk, too. Being aware of their health will not make them lesser of a man but more of a complete man (with no breast missing), actually.

For more valuable information on healthsnippets.com infectious diseases and healthsnippets.com medical advances, please visit healthsnippets.com healthsnippets.com

Tags: breast cancer, chemotherapy, mastectomy

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Tags: breast cancer, chemotherapy, mastectomy

A great deal of research has been devoted to the treatment of cancer in the last 60 years. High tech treatments are now being developed which can increase survival rates and reduce the terrible side effects of the highly toxic drugs and radiation which are the foundations of most medical cancer treatments. New surgical techniques including arthroscopic have greatly aided doctors in removing tumors. Indeed, medical science has every reason to be both proud and optimistic about the prospects of cancer treatment in the 21st Century.

But very little research has been done on the psychological causes of cancer. Why, for example, are certain cancers like breast, colon, and prostate cancer such epidemics in our society? This kind of research could not only help us to change the structures of our culture to greatly reduce the incidence of such diseases, it could give us a wealth of information on how to cure these afflictions. As a hypnotherapist who has specialized in accessing these underlying causes for 25 years of work with cancer patients I have discovered some important answers to this question.

Take breast cancer. According to recent research one out of every eight women will suffer breast cancer in her lifetime. 20 years ago that figure was one in ten. To describe this as a growing epidemic is a serious understatement. But it seems to me that not enough doctors and scientists are asking “why breast cancer?”

Let me illustrate this with a medical mystery from the past. In 19th century England, during the peak of the first industrial revolution, it is estimated that over 75% of deaths were attributed to a single disease: consumption. We now know that this epidemic was directly created by the acid-filled coal smoke that poured out of the chimneys of England’s factories and homes, combined with a virulent strain of tuberculosis which thrived in the cold damp climate, overcrowded tenements, and polluted air of England.

The prevalence of wool and coal dust in the filthy factories which employed children as young as six also contributed to this pandemic. Also contributing was an air of fatalism which dominated the collective consciousness of the time. Because everyone in this society saw the same thing all day long, the culture entered a kind of group hypnotic trance in which this kind of pandemic was seen as fate. It was simply assumed that most people died before forty of lung disease.

While doctors worked hard, and mostly in vain, to stem the tide of the epidemic with a number of treatments, very few had the foresight or the courage to challenge the social institutions which perpetuated this veritable holocaust. Nowadays it’s easy to point the finger at these ignorant doctors. We know that lungs are used for breathing, so we look at the stuff people were breathing in. A similarly pragmatic approach helped researchers determine the connection between lung cancer and smoking in the 1960’s. So what can we learn from these discoveries about the breast cancer epidemic of the late 20th and 21st Century?

To discover the meaning of this epidemic we need no advanced degree in biochemistry or oncology. We need simply to explore what breasts are used for, and study the way women’s breasts are being used in our culture. Obviously, the primary purpose of breasts is to feed babies. However a number of social changes over the last half century have led to a precipitous drop in breast feeding. These changes include women entering the work force in large numbers, replacement of breast feeding with infant formula, and the postponement or cancellation of child bearing by women who are career oriented. Like the industrial revolution of the 19th century, these changes have greatly improved many aspects of life, including giving women freedom to pursue many exciting goals outside of the home. I am no Taliban terrorist who would choose to roll back all the gains women have made in the last 60 years. But we have made these advances at the cost of an epidemic of breast cancer. And until now no one has been willing to see what we have created.

The research bears out this theory. Among the risk factors that predict higher rates of breast cancer we find some interesting statistics. If a woman waits till her thirties to have children, if she does not breast feed them, if she doesn’t have any children, all of these factors increase a woman’s statistical probability of getting breast cancer. Ask yourself this question: If you were a breast, and no one ever paid any attention to you, no one ever let you fulfill your purpose, what would you do?

Of course I don’t reveal these secrets unless I have an answer for them within the world of hypnotherapy. And there’s a simple answer here. While it is generally impossible to get my breast cancer clients into active breast feeding, I have found that it’s only necessary for the client to actively imagine themselves breastfeeding in order to stimulate breast tissue to repair itself. Some clients imagine the joy of breastfeeding their now grown children as infants through regression therapy. Some clients simply imagine breast feeding an inner child. Some clients are taught to hold a doll or stuffed animal and nurse it like a baby, sometimes using gentle massage on their breasts comparable to the squeezing associated with nursing. This produces pleasant tingling sensations within the breast which rapidly lead to a flow of healing hormones and blissful feelings throughout the body.

I am highly skeptical of overly simplistic theories about any disease process. So it’s important to keep in mind that only your breast knows what issues have led to its disease. Sometimes it is necessary to process feelings of loss, grief, or guilt that are associated with the client’s breasts. One client found her cancerous right breast was tired of “nursing” her emotionally immature husband, who always slept on her right side in bed. Another felt guilty about not nursing her children and needed to beg their forgiveness. One simple way to access the breast’s emotional baggage is to journey into the breast in a hypnotic state, or talk to the breast in hypnosis as if it were a person to find out what issues are haunting it. Notice that in both of these examples, the nurturing function of the breast was being twisted or neglected in some way.

The results? Stimulation of healthy circulation and activation of immune system activity within the breast as a result of all these processes have led to tumor reduction or elimination in a number of cases I have examined. Of course double blind studies in a hospital setting are still years away for this simple but effective treatment option, because there are no millions of dollars in profit to be made. So I recommend you do not wait for the medical industry to catch up with the obvious.

Remember all the doctors trying in vain to treat the consumptive patients of the 19th Century? Start creating the medicine of the future now…and let your doctor know what you are doing! Wherever possible, I encourage my clients to work closely with their oncologist. It seems to me that combining the methods described in this article with the latest in new medical treatments is the best formula for easy and complete recovery.

If you or someone you know wants help in addressing the underlying cause of their cancer, visit FountainofYouthHypnosis.com FountainofYouthHypnosis.com and sign up to get a free MP3 download (worth $10) of a Self-Hypnosis Guided Visualization Journey to meet your “Inner Healer” and a coupon good for $100 hypnotherapy phone consultation or office visit. Get all of this plus a free series of instructive articles on improving physical health, healing injuries, resolving anxiety, phobias, depression and help with breaking addictions to cigarettes, food, alcohol or drugs.

Tags: breast cancer, cancer patient, cancer treatment, healing, lung cancer, prostate cancer, treatment of cancer

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Tags: breast cancer, cancer patient, cancer treatment, healing, lung cancer, prostate cancer, treatment of cancer