Do You Know the Warning Signs of Gynecologic Cancer

September is Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month—time to become aware of the warning signs of cancer of the cervix, uterus and ovaries. Fortunately, for cervical and uterine cancer, early detection provides an excellent chance for survival. Early detection of ovarian cancer can also be life-saving, but is much harder to detect in its early, curable stages.

Cervical cancer risk is closely linked to having multiple sex partners, sexually transmitted diseases, the human papillomavirus (HPV), smoking and using immunosuppressive drugs. All women over 18 years of age and those who are sexually active should undergo annual Pap tests to detect early signs of cervical cancer. If the test reveals abnormal cells, your doctor may recommend a cervical biopsy. Cervical cancer may include symptoms like vaginal bleeding after intercourse, spotting or discharge. While these symptoms can also indicate infections or other less serious conditions, you should see your doctor if you experience any of them.

Abnormal bleeding in premenopausal women can also indicate the early stages of uterine cancer. According to Nader Husseinzadeh, M.D., medical director of gynecology/oncology with The St. Luke Hospitals, risk factors for this cancer include obesity, a history of infertility or a family or personal history of cancer. While abnormal bleeding in post-menopausal women can also be a sign of less serious conditions, most cases of endometrial cancer (cancer in the lining of the uterus) are diagnosed at an early stage when this symptom is brought to the attention of a physician.

Ovarian cancer is the trickiest and deadliest of the gynecologic cancers, because there is no reliable screening test and its symptoms are usually confused with those of other diseases. Symptoms include:

• Abdominal pressure or bloating
• Constant and progressive changes in bowel or bladder patterns
• Persistent digestive problems
• Excessive fatigue
• Abnormal bleeding
• Pain during intercourse

Ovarian cancer occurs in one out of 55 women, only 25 percent of whom are diagnosed in the early stages. Risk factors include: increasing age; personal or family history of ovarian, breast or colon cancer; and not bearing a child. Women who are at an increased risk for ovarian cancer should ask their doctor about a CA125 blood test (to detect excess amounts of a sugar protein found in the blood and produced by cancer cells) and a transvaginal ultrasound of the ovaries. There is a concerted research effort to develop a better blood test and an ovarian Pap smear for earlier detection in the future.

Tea's that Fight Cancer:

Tea's Anti-Cancer Powers Affirmed and Expanded in USDA Study
Black and Green Teas Fight Cancer
by Craig Weatherby
Courtesy of Vital Choice Seafood

A team of American and South Korean researchers conducted cell studies that shed new light on the relative anti-cancer properties of green and black tea.

The evidence collected to date suggested that tea's proven anti-cancer powers stem primarily from its powerfully antioxidant flavonoid-type polyphenols.

Thus, it’s been assumed that green and white tea must be the most powerfully anti-cancer forms of the ancient beverage, since they contains more flavonoid-type polyphenols than black tea does.

While black tea (green tea oxidized by fermentation) contains between 3 and 10 percent water-soluble polyphenols by volume, green tea boasts ten times that concentration.

However, as we will see, polyphenols make up only part of the solids in tea: and they may not be the sole or sufficient explanation for tea’s well-documented anti-cancer properties.

And green and black teas also contain different types and proportions of polyphenols.

When tea leaves ferment long enough to turn them black via oxidation, the majority of their catechin-class flavonoid polyphenols change into tannin-like flavonoids called theaflavins and theanine.

However, some population studies have suggested that black tea is as or more protective against certain cancers (including certain breast tumors) as green tea.

Tea flavonoids do five things that work together to stop cancer in its early stages:

1. Cause programmed “suicide” (apoptosis) among cancer cells.
2. Block P450 enzymes, which activate pro-cancer compounds.
3. Stop tumor-promoting chemical signals from cancer cells.
4. Disable damaged, cancer-promoting DNA
5. Block growth of new blood vessels in the tumor (angiogenesis)

Given this context, the general thrust of what the USDA team found came as no big surprise.

But their unexpected findings vis a vis the effects of tea flavonoids on human cancer cells is sure to send scientists back to the bench for further exploration.

Black and green tea work equally well; Benefits not tied tightly to flavonoid content

The joint USDA/South Korea team examined the ability of nine green tea catechins, three black tea theaflavins, and theanine from black tea to induce cell death (apoptosis) in isolated human cancer cells (Friedman M et al 2006).

Tea, berries, and other polyphenol-rich plants are considered key anti-cancer agents because they undermine cancer when it is most vulnerable: during its early, so-called “promotion” stage.

The researchers reported that most of the flavanol-type flavonoids in both green and black tea -- catechins, theaflavins, and theanine – cut the numbers of cancerous human breast, colon, liver, and prostate cells, without big differences among them.

However the efficacy of each different extract of black or green tea tested depended not on its flavonoid content, but simply on the sheer amount of dissolved solids per volume of liquid, regardless of their flavonoid content.

This suggests that something about the non-flavonoid compounds play key roles, and that therefore, black tea may offer anti-cancer benefits closer to those of green and white tea than thought.

They also found that ethanol/water extracts of tea possess more flavonoids and are more potently anti-cancer, suggesting that tea supplements (mostly made this way) may have a bit of an edge over water extracts, such as plain cups of tea. But any hypothetical anti-tumor advantage supplemental tea capsules might offer is likely to be quite expensive, compared with enjoying tea by the cup.

As the USDA/Korea team said (Friedman M et al 2006), their findings extend our knowledge of the anti-cancer potential of tea, and suggest, most significantly, “… that consumers may benefit more by drinking both green and black teas.”

Provenge Fights Prostate Cancer

By Dr. Ralph Moss
from CancerDecisions.com Newsletter

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers. Each year in the US, around 230,000 men are newly diagnosed with prostate cancer and 30,000 die of the disease.

A new form of immune therapy has shown a significant survival benefit in men who have metastatic androgen-independent prostate cancer, when compared to patients receiving placebo.

The treatment is called Provenge (APC8015) and is manufactured by Dendreon Corp. of Seattle. Provenge is called a vaccine, but unlike most vaccines, it is used not to prevent illness but to treat an already existing condition. The vaccine combines a protein that is found in most prostate cancer cells with a substance that helps the immune system recognize the cancer as a threat. In clinical trials, Provenge was well tolerated: the most common adverse events that were reported were fever and chills lasting for one to two days.

The vaccine is autologous in nature. That is, it is produced from the patient's own cells and must be custom made for each patient individually. First, patients have their blood run through a machine for two or three hours in order to extract certain immune system cells, called antigen presenting cells (APCs). These cells are then mixed with a protein called prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) that is commonly found on most prostate tumors. The PAP is fused with another immune-stimulating substance called GM-CSF. The mixture is then returned to the patient in a one-hour infusion. This process is repeated three times over the course of a month. The basic idea is to alert the immune system that cells containing prostatic acid phosphatase, (i.e., prostate cancer cells) should now be attacked as if they were a foreign invader.

Antigen presenting cells (APCs), a class of cells that includes dendritic cells and macrophages, are of major importance in immunotherapy. They are distributed throughout the skin, respiratory tract, and gastrointestinal tract. APCs serve two major functions: they capture and process cell-surface markers, or antigens, for presentation to the T class of lymphocytes. And they also produce signals that are required for the proliferation and differentiation of those lymphocytes.

For several years, dendritic cell vaccines have been offered at CAM-oriented clinics in Mexico, the Caribbean and northern Europe, but have not been available in the US outside the strict confines of clinical trials.

In the latest study, men who were treated with Provenge survived on average 26 months, compared to 21.4 months for those who received only a placebo injection. This may not seem like much, but in fact this 4.5-month median survival benefit is said to be the longest ever reported from a Phase III study in advanced prostate cancer. It is better than the roughly 2.5-month benefit that was shown in clinical trials of Taxotere, a drug from Sanofi-Aventis. Taxotere is presently one of only a few approved forms of chemotherapy for patients whose cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland and is no longer responsive to hormonal therapy (the others are estramustine and mitoxantrone).

What is more, at three years, 28 of the 82 men who received Provenge were still alive, compared to only 4 of 45 patients in the placebo group. Provenge is now considered to have a shot at becoming the first anticancer therapy vaccine to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Approval will probably depend on the results of a larger study, currently underway, which should be reported by the end of 2005.

"This is provocative, it is promising. We now need to confirm this with an independent study," said Dr. Philip Kantoff, a Harvard Medical School professor who heads prostate cancer treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He was not involved in latest company-supported study.

The authors of the study emphasized the fact that the men who received the vaccine were actually living longer. However, paradoxically, the study did not achieve its primary goal of delaying the progression of the men's disease. This apparent contradiction has caused some controversy. Some critics contend that "time to progression" is the standard measurement of benefit and should have been extended if the vaccine were truly helping men live longer. Dr. Kantoff described his attitude as "skeptical."

But according to Dr. Stephen Small, MD, professor of medicine and urology at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the Phase III study, "Time to progression is interesting, but it isn't the gold standard. The gold standard is survival. We've improved survival....A therapy that prolongs life yet avoids the side-effects of other therapeutic approaches is clearly attractive to patients and physicians alike."

Dr. Small pointed out that the time to progression was not the right measure to use for judging cancer vaccines because cancer can worsen before the immune system starts to fight it. He said that Provenge improved the survival of all patients, not just those who had less aggressive cancers.

"The survival benefit seen with Provenge is the largest ever reported in this patient population with any therapy," said Dr. Small. "This survival benefit, combined with a favorable safety profile, has the potential to provide an important new treatment option for prostate cancer patients."

The results were reported on February 19, 2005 at the Multidisciplinary Prostate Cancer Symposium in Orlando, FL. Dendreon's stock price, which had been as high as $16 per share, sank in January when it was announced that the drug was failing to attain its primary objective of delaying the time to progression. When word leaked out about the survival advantage, its stock spike upward by 15 percent. However, within a week it had returned to its recent $6-7 range. This may have been the result of negative statements coming from others in the cancer research community.

According to the Seattle Times, "the treatment has numerous skeptics." These include Patrick Walsh, MD, a Johns Hopkins University urologist and a well-known prostate-cancer surgeon, who said the study was too small to allow definitive conclusions. He said it was unknown what other therapies patients may have had during the three-year follow-up period, which may have made a difference.

"The numbers here are just too small to make this a big deal," said Walsh. Dr. Howard West, an oncologist at Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, said the study would be a stronger statement if the survival edge was seen across a larger number of patients. Still, he called the finding "extremely intriguing."

In addition to Provenge, the company has another vaccine in development. This is called APC8024 and targets HER-2/neu positive cancers, including those of the breast, ovaries, colon and lung.

Note from Chet: Be sure to sign up for Dr. Moss's excellent newsletter at his website.
References

Marchione, Marilynn. Treatment for prostate cancer offers promise. Vaccine approach seeks to fight tumors. Associated Press, Feb. 17, 2005.

Pollack, Andrew. Prostate cancer vaccine shows promise in a trial. New York Times, Feb. 17, 2005

13 Steps You Can Take To Prevent Cancer

By Dr. Ben Kim
DrBenKim.com

The purpose of this article is to outline 13 ways that you can decrease your risk of developing any type of cancer. The following 13 ways to prevent cancer are presented in no particular order:

1. If you are going to be sexually active, be in a mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who is not infected by human papilloma virus (HPV)

Genital HPV infection is a sexually transmitted disease that is caused by the human papilloma virus. There are actually more than 100 strains of the human papilloma virus, some of which can lead to cancer of the cervix, vagina, vulva, anus, or penis.

If you are sexually active and are not in a mutually monogamous relationship, I recommend that you learn more about HPV through various online resources. A clear and simple outline on HPV can be found at the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention website.

I encourage women who belong in this category to have a Pap test on an annual basis. I believe that Pap tests can be extremely useful for sexually active women who have had multiple partners or a partner who has had multiple partners because surgical excision of pre-cancerous and cancerous cells of the cervix is one of the safest and most effective procedures performed by the medical profession. I have worked with dozens of women over the years who have benefited from this procedure.

2. Eat lots of plant foods, mainly organic vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fruits

Plant foods provide an abundance of antioxidants and fiber, both of which are known to reduce the risk of developing several different types of cancer.

Vegetables and fruits reduce the risk of developing cancers of the lung, stomach, esophagus, and larynx, while legumes and grains may help to reduce the risk of developing cancers of the stomach and pancreas.

There are five major groups of cancer-fighting compounds in fruits and vegetables: isothiocyanates, indols, cumines, phenols, and flavones.

The most powerful cancer-fighting vegetables belong to the cruciferous family, the most common of which are:

* Broccoli
* Cabbage
* Brussels sprouts
* Mustard greens
* Kale
* Cauliflower.

A perfect cancer-fighting salad looks something like this:

* Romaine lettuce
* Tomatoes
* Bell peppers
* Broccoli
* Chick peas
* Kidney beans
* Avocado
* Carrots

3. Stay away from sugar

A study published in the February 2004 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute points to a strong association between a diet high in sugar and the risk of colorectal cancer in women.

There are too many published studies on the relationship between sugar intake and cancer to list them all in this article. If you want to learn more about sugar and cancer, a good place to start is here: Glycemic Modulation of Tumor Tolerance.

4. Learn how to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy oils

The healthiest oils are extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil. Oils that should be avoided whenever possible include corn, cottonseed, sunflower, and safflower oils. To learn more about healthy vs. unhealthy oils, view: A Guide To Choose Healthy Oils.

5. Beware of electromagnetic fields and ionizing radiation

In an early draft of a report issued in the spring of 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States recommended that electromagnetic fields (EMFs) be classified as a class B carcinogen - a probable human carcinogen. Unfortunately, by the time that the EPA released the final draft of this report, the words "class B carcinogen" were nowhere to be found.

Despite their change of heart on electromagnetic fields, the EPA did include the following in their report:

"In conclusion, several studies showing leukemia, lymphoma and cancer of the nervous system in children exposed to EMF's, supported by similar findings in adults in several occupational studies also involving electrical power frequency exposures, show a consistent pattern of response that suggest a causal link."

There is plenty of evidence in the scientific literature that has me convinced that electromagnetic fields can be a significant cause of cancer. If you want to learn more about this topic, a good place to start is here: Electro-Magnetic Pollution and Health in the Workplace.

X-rays, mammograms, and other forms of ionizing radiation are also capable of causing cancer. Dr. Jon Gofman's findings on ionizing radiation are summarized here: Points to Consider Before Taking Another X-Ray.

6. Don't use oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapies

Oral contraceptives (combinations of estrogen and progestin used to prevent ovulation) increase a woman's risk of developing breast and liver cancer. Oral contraceptives also increase a woman's risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke and developing a serious blood clot.

Estrogen-based drugs that are used for symptoms of menopause are associated with an increased risk of developing cancer of the endometrium and possibly the breast.

7. Strive to maintain your optimal weight

Obesity is an established cause of both endometrial and post menopausal breast cancer. Obesity is also strongly associated with cancers of the kidney, colon, and rectum.

Reaching and maintaining your optimal weight is a simple matter of balancing the calories you consume and use each day. What's not so simple is overcoming any emotional stressors that may be getting in the way of you balancing these factors. This is a topic that we will look at in greater detail in future newsletters.

8. Be physically active

Daily exercise can help to prevent cancer through the following mechanisms:

* Boosting your immune system
* Preventing obesity
* Decreasing estrogen levels
* Decreasing insulin growth factor (IGF) levels - high IGF levels can increase your risk of developing cancer of the breast, colon, and rectum

9. Minimze your exposure to environmental toxins

Thanks to the industrial revolution, environmental toxins can be found in every part of our world. A clinical review in the February 2004 issue of the British Medical Journal suggests that up to 75 percent of all cases of cancer are caused by environmental and lifestyle factors.

It's impossible to avoid exposure to environmental toxins entirely, but you can strive to avoid the following everyday toxins through simple lifestyle choices:

* Heavy metals - found in mercury fillings, treated wood, antiperspirants, vaccines, and factory farmed fish
* Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - found in factory farmed fish
* Asbestos - found in many building materials made before the mid to late 1970s
* Dioxins - found in fat of animals that are factory farmed
* Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) - found in cosmetics, clothing that has been dry cleaned, air fresheners, paints, deodorants, and bug repellents
* Pesticides - non-organic fruits and vegetables, factory farmed meats, and bug repellents

10. Strive to sleep soundly for 8-10 hours per day in darkness

Sound and regular sleep is essential to promoting a healthy circadian rhythm, which is intimately interconnected with your endocrine system and ability to prevent cancer. Recent studies have indicated that sleeping in complete darkness is essential to supporting an endocrine system that can suppress cancer development. For guidelines on how to promote deep, restful sleep, view: Nine Steps To Better Sleep.

11. Don't smoke tobacco, drink alcohol, or use any other recreational drugs

According to the Harvard Center For Cancer Prevention, approximately 30 percent of all deaths due to cancer in the United States can be attributed to tobacco use. And every day, we are learning more about how harmful second hand tobacco smoke is to human health. It's been more than 12 years since the Environmental Protection Agency classified tobacco smoke as a Group A carcinogen, for which there is no safe level of exposure.

Heavy alcohol use is strongly associated with cancer of the liver. Alcohol can interact with tobacco smoking to cause various cancers of the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. Finally, alcohol consumption is also associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer. There's no way around it: alcohol should be avoided whenever possible.

Marijuana and cocaine use have been shown to increase one's risk of developing lung cancer.

12. Go easy on the salt

Heavy salt intake is associated with cancer of the stomach. All salt - including mineral dense sea salt - should be used sparingly.

13. Strive to be emotionally balanced

This last point may be the most important factor that determines your risk of developing cancer. Emotional stress is highly capable of causing every single health condition that we know of, all types of cancer included. I've said it before and I'll say it again: you can have the healthiest diet in the world and still develop cancer if you are not emotionally balanced

Article: Basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer. It can be destructive and disfiguring. Risk is increased for individuals with a family history of the disease and a high cumulative exposure to UV light via sunlight or, in the past, carcinogenic chemicals especially arsenic. Treatment is with surgery, topical chemotherapy, x-ray, cryosurgery, photodynamic therapy, or topical immune enhancement drugs such as imiquimod. It is rarely life-threatening but if left untreated can be disfiguring, cause bleeding and produce local destruction (eg., eye, ear, nose, lip).

Forms

Various forms are recognised:

* Nodular: flesh-colored papule with telangiectasis. If it ulcerates, it becomes a "rodent ulcer" (ulcus rodens), an ulcerating nodule with (often) a pearly border.
* Cystic: rarer and hard to distinguish from the nodular form. It has a central cavity with fluid.
* Pigmented: a variant of the nodular form that may be confused with melanoma.
* Sclerosing/cicratising: a scar-like lesion.
* Superficial: a red scaling patch

About two thirds of the carcinomas occur in sun-exposed areas and one third occur in non-sun-exposed areas, emphasizing the genetic susceptability of the basal cell cancer patients.

Diagnosis

To diagnose, a biopsy (where tissue is taken for pathological study) is done using local anesthesia. In small lesions, the tumor is generally removed in its entiriety, while larger ones are biopsied first and surgically removed later if it is confirmed that it is malignant.

Histopathology: Basal cell carcinoma is a malignant epithelial tumor arising only in skin, from the basal layer of the epidermis or of the pilosebaceous adnexa. Tumor is represented by compact areas, well delineated and invading the dermis, apparent with no connection with the epidermis. Tumor cells resemble normal basal cells (small, monomorphous) are disposed in palisade at the periphery of the tumor nests, but are spindle-shaped and irregular in the middle. Tumor clusters are separated by a reduced stroma with inflammatory infiltrate. 1

Pathophysiology

Basal cell carcinomas develop in the basal cell layer of the skin. Sunlight exposure leads to DNA crosslinking between thymidine residues. While DNA repair removes most UV-induced damage, not all crosslinks are excised. There is, therefore, cumulative DNA damage leading to mutations. Apart from the mutagenesis, sunlight depresses the local immune system, possibly decreasing immune surveillance for new tumor cells.

Prevention & Early Diagnosis

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common skin cancer. It occurs mainly in fair-skinned patients with a family history of this cancer. Sunlight is a factor in about two thirds of these cancers, but one third occur in non sun-exposed areas. Therefore, dermatologists recommend sun screens and annual skin cancer exams to prevent or provide early detection of this common tumor.

Treatment

Most basal cell carcinomas are removed surgically by dermasurgeons. A common method is "electrodessication and curettage" (ED&C). This is done by scraping the tumor out with a curette and cauterizing the base and margins. The wound is left to heal by itself (secondary intention healing). The cure rate and cosmetic result are excellent, especially in concave areas. It is also the most cost effective treatment. Surgical excision by the dermasurgeon is another option with the margins of excised tissue examined under the microscope. Certain types, like the sclerosing basal cell cancers may need a wider margin, as they develop subtle processes that project outside the visible part of the tumor.

Some superficial cancers respond to local therapy with 5-fluorouracil, a chemotherapy agent.

Mohs micrographic surgery[1] has the highest cure rate and is especially indicated for recurrent tumors or tumors in areas (eg. eyelid or nose) where minimal amounts of tissue removal are important. Mohs surgery involves checking the base and edges under a microscope before the surgical repair of the site. Specially trained dermasurgeons do this procedure, usually in-office.

A new immune enhancement agent (topical imiquimod, "Aldara") is effective for the treatment of superficial skin cancers (basal cell and squamous cell cancer, and even malignant melanoma in-situ). It is also used pre-operatively to shrink nodular basal cell cancers, thus allowing a smaller surgical excision.

X-ray is still appropriate in older patients who are not candidates for surgery. Cryosurgery is another option, particularly for basal cell cancer invading cartilage, as the healthy cartilage is cryo-resistant.

Dermatologic surgeons (dermasurgeons) will recommend one of these modalities as appropriate treatment depending on the tumor size, location, patient age and other variables.

There is also a new treatment using Euphorbia peplus a common garden weed. [2]

Prognosis

Although basal cell carcinoma rarely metastasizes, it grows locally without stopping. The cancer can impinge on vital structures and result loss of function or rarely death. The vast majority of cases can be successfully treated before serious complications occur.

Epidemiology

Basal cell cancer is the most common skin cancer. It is much more common in fair skinned individuals with a family history of basal cell cancer and increases in incidence closer to the equator or at higher altitude. According to Skin Cancer Foundation[3], there are approximately 800,000[4] new cases yearly in the United States alone.

Most sporadic BCC arise in small numbers on sun-exposed skin of people over age 50, although younger people may also be affected. The development of multiple basal cell cancer at an early age could be indicative of Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome

Article: Stomach cancer

Stomach cancer (also called gastric cancer) can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs, particularly the esophagus, small intestine. It also may extend through the stomach wall and spread to nearby lymph nodes and to organs such as the liver, pancreas, and colon. Stomach cancer also may spread to distant organs, such as the lungs, the lymph nodes above the collar bone, and the ovaries. Metastasis to the ovary is called a Krukenberg tumor.

Breast Cancer For Beginners

By: Mansi Aggarwal

Introduction
Because of the social changes, which has brought increased number of workingwoman and hence delayed childbearing, there has been a steep rise in the number of breast cancer patients in the last few decades. But as the incidence of the patients has risen so has raised the modality of treatments and the success rates. Also scientists have devised methods by which the cancer can be detected in an early stage and it has been convincingly proved that early detection and treatment bears a better prognosis than the later stage.

Myths
There are many myths attached to breast cancer. Some think that any lump in breast is a breast cancer but to the contrary most of them are benign. Similarly it was a popular belief earlier that breast-feeding decreases one’s risk of the cancer but that has been now found to be untrue. Some say that mammography makes the breast cancer widespread but it’s not true. Similarly there are many other myths, which need to be cleared in mind of the general mass for the proper detection and management of the tumor.

Early detection
Breast cancer can be detected in an early stage if women are taught to self-examine their breast. In case of detection of any breast lump or of any slightest suspicion, mammography should be done to rule out any tumor. Mammography is a good tool to diagnose this type of cancer.

Statistics
The incidence of breast cancer is increasing at an alarming rate. It is said that every 2-3 minutes one American woman is diagnosed a breast cancer.

Cause
Although the cause is not fully understood but it is hypothesized that there are various factors such as genetic and environmental. The environmental factors are increased age, obesity, smoking and having the first child at late age.

Diagnosis
The findings that denote a cancer are single, non-tender and firm to hard mass with ill-defined margins. This can be later confirmed by mammography and biopsy. After the cancer has been diagnosed staging is done to find out the best treatment option as well as the prognosis.

Management
The management of breast cancer rests basically on two things. The first is the treatment and second is the counseling. The treatment can further be divided into three: medical, radiation, and surgery. The medical treatment consists of drugs such as tamoxifen, which is an anti estrogen, aromatase inhibitors such as aminoglutethimide and monoclonal antibodies such as trastuzumab. But similar to other drugs they have their own side effects profile. The side effects associated with tamoxifen are increased vaginal bleeding, endometrial cancer and cataracts. The aromatase inhibitors have the side effects of leg cramps, jaundice and weight gain while the monoclonal antibodies may cause sterility or certain birth abnormalities.
Generally the radiation and surgery are the modalities, which are needed for the treatment to ward off the body of the cancerous growth.

Counseling
This is one of the most important parts of the treatment both before and after the surgery. The patients are to be taught that this is only another disease, which has treatment available, and persons can lead a normal life after that.

Latest research
Latest research is being done on both the surgery and the medicine. For the surgery, surgeons are trying to find out the best way of surgery so that post surgery the patients have minimal disabilities. Similar medicines with lesser side effects are being researched.

About the Author:

Mansi gupta writes about breast cancer topics. Learn more at http://www.breastcancerassistance.com .