How does an average woman react to the terrifying diagnosis of breast cancer? Many women go through several psychological steps in learning how to deal with breast cancer.

First, there is shock. Particularly when you’re relatively young and have never had a life-threatening illness before; it’s hard to believe you have something as serious as cancer. It’s all the more difficult to believe because, in most cases, your body hasn’t given you any warning at all. Unlike, for example, appendicitis or a heart attack, there’s no pain or fever or nausea - no symptom that tells you something is going wrong inside. You or your doctor have found this painless little lump, or your routine mammogram shows something peculiar - and the next thing you know, your doctor is telling you you’ve got breast cancer. Many women say this is the worst part of the journey. The initial shock can leave you feeling confused and not sure how to proceed. Along with the shock, there’s a feeling of anger at your body, which has betrayed you in such an underhanded fashion. In spite of the horror that you feel at the thought of losing your breast, often your first reaction is a desire to get rid of it.

While this is a perfectly understandable emotional response, it’s not one you should act on. Getting your breast cut off will not make things go back to normal; your life has been changed and it will never be the same again. You need time to let this sink in, to face the implications cancer has for you and to make a rational, informed decision about what treatment will be best for you both physically and emotionally.

Today there’s much more emphasis on doctor and patient sharing the decision making process and there are more options to choose from. There’s also a lot more knowledge available - there are manuscripts about breast cancer and its survival rates in both the medical and the popular press and on the internet.

So if the first stage is shock, the second is investigating your options. It is very important to reflect seriously on what the possibility of losing a breast would mean to you. Its importance varies from woman to woman, but there is no woman for whom it doesn’t have some significance. Although many women will say, “I don’t care about my breast”, deep down this is probably not true for most of us. A mastectomy may be the best choice for you, but it will still have a powerful effect on how you feel about yourself. For many women, the loss of a breast can mean feelings of inadequacy.

Several studies have been done comparing conservative surgery and mastectomy with or without immediate breast reconstruction, looking for differences in psychological adjustment. Interesting enough, the important factor often appears to be the match between the woman and her treatment. That is, the way she feels about her body, about surgery, about radiotherapy, about having a part in the decision making process of her treatment and about a multitude of factors affects how she reacts to this new and enormous stress.

Along with the fears and stages of recovery, there are also a number of related issues that come up for people with cancer. One of these is the tendency to feel quilt for having cancer - a sense that you’ve somehow done something wrong. People have a tendency to blame themselves for being ill anyway and a woman will often feel she’s betrayed her function as a caregiver by getting breast cancer.

For many women breast cancer never returns and they begin gradually to rebuild their lives. But sometimes, cancer does return. The emotional issues of breast cancer recurrence are so profound and complex that, if you do have a reappearance of the cancer, you may need the help of a mental health professional.

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

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Tags: breast cancer, mastectomy

Proto-oncogenes are normal genes involved in making cells differentiate and divide. When these genes are mutated, they are then called oncogenes. Proto-oncogenes involved in breast cancer are mostly those that cause more cell division by making the cell cycle go faster and accelerate. They are involved in pushing cell division harder, stronger and faster.

One of the proto-oncogenes is related to the epidermal growth factor receptor. This receptor plays a vital role at certain times of the life cycle, such as puberty, when big changes are going on with body growth, wherein a protein known as epidermal growth factor functions to promote cell growth. This protein binds to an epidermal growth factor receptor and signals the cell to grow. When the proto-oncogene for the receptor is over expressed, it doesn’t wait for the epidermal growth factor receptor to tell it to grow. Instead, cells begin to grow independently, just like getting stuck in the “ON” position.

Another type of epidermal growth factor receptor is a subtype, the epidermal growth factor receptor 2. This receptor is more commonly known as Her-2/neu oncogene. The type of genetic alteration that Her-2/neu has in breast cancer is known as amplification. Instead of having only one copy during cell division, the cell makes numerous copies of this gene, about ten to sixty times more. Either the gene over expression or the extra protein can be measured in a woman’s cancer by examining the cancer tissue that has been resected. Since Her-2/neu oncogene encodes a growth factor receptor, it functions in signaling the cells to grow faster and faster, although it is not involved in cancer invasiveness. About 70 to 80 percent breast precancers have over expression of Her-2/neu oncogene. The cancer cells are still contained within the breast duct, but they have been programmed to grow much faster because of the over expression of such oncogene. Although Her-2/neu oncogene was first identified in breast cancer, research is also being done to see if it is also involved in other cancer types such as lung, pancreas and ovary cancer.

For breast cancer to have an invasive nature, it needs more than one genetic alteration. So long as there’s only over expression of Her-2/neu oncogene, the cancer will remain confined within the breast duct. If it requires other forms of genetic alterations, one that causes cancer cells to move out of the ductal region or make new blood vessels (angiogenesis), then it can spread. If the cancer patient has these invasive cancer alterations and one of the accelerated cancer growths, then it is worse. People with both of these genetic alterations have a worse prognosis than with only one type of alteration alone. Cancer not only requires excessive cancer cell proliferation, it also has to invade, grow new blood vessels and spread from the breast area.

One of the fascinating things that have happened in recent years is that there is now an antibody to counteract the Her-2/neu receptor, which can be given intravenously to breast cancer patients. It has quite a unique mechanism of action. It attaches only to cells with too much Her-2/neu receptor, not the normal ones, so that while it antagonizes Her-2/neu cells, it leaves the other cells unaffected. Unlike chemotherapy, with which case most dividing cells are destroyed, it is a targeted therapy. So far, this treatment has been used only in metastatic breast cancer, but it has implications for disease that hasn’t spread yet.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to

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Tags: breast cancer, cancer patient, chemotherapy, oncogenes

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 1.2 million people were diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide in 2005. In the United States, it is said that every two minutes one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2005, it was estimated that there were 212,0000 new cases of breast cancer and out of which 40,000 or about 19%, died from the disease. In the city-state of Singapore, it is said that every day three women are being diagnosed with breast cancer. In Malaysia 3,738 breast cancer cases were reported in 2003. This means that one in twenty women in Malaysia will get breast cancer.

Despite extensive research, the exact cause of breast cancer is not known. Medicine has all along been about treating breast cancer, not about preventing it. Most often, women with breast cancer are subjected to a “package” of standard treatments – surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy. The most important question that patients ask after undergoing all these treatments is: “Am I cured? Or, is there truly a cure for breast cancer?”

According to Silvia Dellapasqua et al. (in: J. Clinical Oncol. 23:1736-1749) the “prognosis of breast cancer in young women is generally considered to be unfavourable. Young pre-menopausal breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant CMF chemotherapy had higher risk of relapse and death than older pre-menopausal patients.” Martin Piccart-Gebhart (in J. Clinical Oncol. 23:1611-1613) wrote: “Chemotherapy has long been considered our most efficient weapon in the fight against breast cancer … where this dream, unfortunately, did not materialize.”

One sad example of such crashed dream was a case of Mei (not real name), a 34-year old female nurse. Mei was diagnosed with carcinoma of the right breast. She underwent a right mastectomy and axillary clearance in August 2003. This was followed by six cycles of chemotherapy using FAC (5-FU, andriamycin and cyclophosphamide). From 1 March to 19 March 2004, Mei received radiotherapy on her right chest wall. When the treatments were completed,she was started on tamoxifen.

Barely eight months after the completion of her treatments, in November 2004, Mei had a 3 x 3 cm soft tissue mass associated with bony destruction in her sternum. In addition, there were multiple nodules scattered in both her lungs. Sadly, the cancer recurred and spread within this short period of time.

Mei underwent chemotherapy again, using Taxol. After five cycles, the use of Taxol was terminated because it was not effective resulting in disease progression. The lymph nodes in her right collarbone seemed to have been infected. Mei was given another round of chemotherapy using Navelbine. But unfortunately after the first treatment, this chemotherapy was abandoned due to severe side effects.

In April 2005, Mei was given an oral drug Arimidex (anastrozole). From 25 May to 31 May 2005, she was on radiotherapy again, as the sternal mass was increasing in size. In spite of this treatment, the swelling of the right collarbone grew bigger. The use of Arimidex was discontinued and was replaced with Xeloda.

Mei decided to stop further chemotherapy. On 23 June 2005, she developed right pleural effusion (fluid in the lung). The doctor tapped out 5.5 liters of fluid from her lung and she felt better. On 23 July 2005, I received a fax asking for help. Unfortunately, Mei died a month later — much too late to help her in any way.

According to Mei’s sister, upon diagnosis of breast cancer, Mei’s boss, who is a doctor, handed her my book (Cancer Yet They Live) and said: “Read this, and if you believe in what the author said, go and see him. But don’t tell people that I give you this book.” Mei was a nurse. Her training had placed her in a “box” with a fixed mindset that only modern medicine has all the answers to cancer. To her the only right way is surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and follow-up drugs. Other ways are hocus pocus.

Dr. Alan Levin, professor of immunology at the University of California Medical School, was quoted to have said: “Most cancer patients … die of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy does not eliminate breast, colon or lung cancers. Women with breast cancer are likely to die faster with chemotherapy than without it.”

Dr. Hardin Jones, professor of medical physics at the University of California, Berkeley, analysed cancer survival statistics for twenty-five years. In 1969 at the American Cancer Society meeting, he was quoted to have said: “Untreated patients … in many cases live longer (they) do not die sooner than patients receiving orthodox treatment.”

Dr. Lai Gi-ming, Taiwan Cooperative Oncology Group, National Research Institute wrote: “The thing that most frustrates modern doctors is that, after surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, all they can do is keep chasing and chasing the cancer!”

How much of what were said by these experts apply to Mei’s case?

For more information about complementary cancer therapy visit:
cacare.com cacare.com
NaturalHealingForYou.com NaturalHealingForYou.com
BookOnCancer.com BookOnCancer.com

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Tags: breast cancer, cancer patient, chemotherapy, healing, lung cancer, mastectomy

As we recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month, you are probably sobered to learn that you have a one in eight chance of getting breast cancer, just like celebrities Supreme Court judge, Sandra Day O’Conner, champion ice skater, Peggy Fleming, and singer, Melissa Etheridge. In addition to wearing a pink ribbon or running in one of the races to raise money for the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation, I would like to encourage you to take a look at your lifestyle and take steps to reduce your own potential for this disease.

Doctors say that genetics do play a part in the statistics of your probability of getting breast cancer, but there are other factors in our American lifestyle that contribute to those chances as well. Those things, you have control over.

Your cells are designed to live in a healthy environment, which includes proper hydration levels, a healthy pH balance, proper mineral balance, the absence of toxins, proper oxygen levels, etc. If your internal environment balance is upset and your immune system weakened, your cells become stressed and your body can develop diseases, including cancer.

How does your cell environment become unhealthy? Many components can contribute to this imbalance in your cells’ environment: an acidic pH balance, improper diet, lack of exercise, low water consumption, improper breathing, and high toxic levels.

Be sure you keep track of your pH balance. If you test your saliva pH in the morning before eating or drinking anything, you should have a reading of 7.0. If your system is too acidic, you can suffer from excessive fatigue, weak kidneys, easy weight gain, excessive stress, reluctant weight loss, constipation, aches, pains, headaches, malaise, proneness to catching colds, mental confusion, and even lack of clear thinking. Research is showing that cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment as well.

Wouldn’t you like to take steps to put your body into the best shape possible for fighting this and many other diseases? As you can see, one way you can do that is to keep your body’s pH balance in an alkaline range. Here are a few ways to achieve that goal:

Design your diet to produce an alkaline environment for your cells. Concentrate on alkaline-triggering foods like fruits and vegetables. (Avoid those vegetables grown in mineral depleted soils.) Limit very acid-triggering foods like meats, fish, and poultry. Eat reasonable amounts of acidic eggs, dairy products, and carbohydrates like breads, pasta, and cereals.

Relax! Learn to handle your stress more effectively. Tests have proved that strong negative emotions like pent-up anger and bad reactions to stress cause the body to produce acids that destroy proper pH balances. Get plenty of rest to refresh yourself and exercise to relieve stress’s effects from your body. Remember, even your thoughts contribute to your body’s environment. Research in this area suggests that lack of control over stress has negative effects on immune function and contributes to tumor growth.

Breathe deeply! It’s important to manage your body’s oxygen levels. Another effect of acidic pH balances is that your body falls into an anaerobic condition when body pH balances falls below 7.0, leading to organs becoming acidic. Your body now is susceptible to many diseases, including cancer. The lack of proper oxygen in the body contributes to a cancerous environment.

Nobel Prize winner, Otto Warburg proved half a century ago, that a lack of oxygen respiration in cells causes cancer. His work, “The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer” explains that cancer occurs when any cell is denied 60% of its oxygen requirements. Instead of normal oxygen respiration, the cells experience a fermentation of sugar, which feeds cancer cells. Research shows that cancer cells can’t exist when there is enough oxygen.

So, how can you increase your oxygen levels? Start by breathing properly and deeply, increasing oxygen intake, and exercising regularly to increase cardiac flow carrying oxygen to the cells. This changes the internal environment to one that which cancer doesn’t thrive in.

Drink! Drink! Drink! Another contributor to an unhealthy cellular environment is improper consumption of water. I’m sure you’ve heard that a great percentage of the body is made of water, but did you realize that every system in your body depends on water to function properly? Without enough water, you don’t absorb nutrients and vitamins, you become constipated, have more kidney stones and urinary infections, and you can become dehydrated. If you become dehydrated, your blood gets thicker, your heart has to work harder to circulate it, your brain feels sluggish, and you can have trouble concentrating. Can you believe that water, or the lack of it, can affect your body to such degrees?

Incidentally, as you balance these areas of your lifestyle, you could reap other rewards besides maintaining a healthy cell environment. You could lose weight, sleep better, have more energy, have better hair and skin, and enjoy a greater level of wellness than you have ever experienced.

Copyright (c) 2006 Dr. Eileen Silva

Eileen Silva, Ph.D., N.D. is a metabolic health balancing expert, talk show guest, and lecturer. Dr. Silva is also an individual, group, and corporate weight management consultant. Contact Dr. Silva at dreileensilva.com/ dreileensilva.com

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Tags: breast cancer, cancer awareness

There are some signs that may tell you if you have breast cancer. Breast cancer is formed when normal cells divide and multiple in uncontrollable fashion. This causes the development of extra cells which further lump together and create a tumor. Some physical changes may appear in the breast and its surrounding area such as presence of lumps that does not go away, inversion of the nipple, discharge from the breast, and changes to the skin color which overlies the breast.

Bear in mind that most lumps that are found in the breast are not always cancerous. However, you should consult with a doctor to have them checked. Discharge from the breast is also a common problem in women, which does not necessarily lead to a cancer disease. Changes in nipple, which makes it pointing inward, are often temporary and considered normal in some women. Nevertheless, if those conditions become permanent then it should be discussed with your doctor.

Symptoms of breast cancer vary depending on the stage it is in. There is usually no obvious pain or any signs in the early stage of breast cancer. The development of breast cancer can take from a period of months or years. Once the disease is detected, treatment has to be given immediately to avoid the spread of the cancer to other parts of the body, which is known as metastastic spread.

A simple way to check breast cancer is through breast exam. It involves touching and feeling around the breast and under the arms to find any lumps or other abnormalities. The exam is usually conducted by a female doctor. Another common test for signs for breast cancer is called mammography exam. A mammogram is an x-ray of the breast that will show any abnormal growth of tissues.

Breast cancer is one of the lethal diseases for women of all ages. There are several factor risks that can increase the chance of having the disease. Study has shown that women in the age group above 50 are more likely to have breast cancer than that of below 30. Menstrual cycle also partly contributes to the risk for breast cancer. The risk is getting bigger for women who have early menstrual and late menopause. Breast cancer is also more frequently developed in spinsters and married woman that have not given birth to children or those who have given birth but then have not breast fed their offspring. Some other factors include diet, radiation from the environment, genetics, and lifestyle.

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Tags: breast cancer