Exercise reduces risk of breast cancer.

With the increasing awareness of the importance of breast screening for early detection of cancer, breast imaging has found a place in today--s diagnostic armamentarium.

The common imaging modalities are mammography, ultrasound and MRI. Mammography is the investigation of choice and is an essential part of screening programmes in the West.

Mammography and ultrasound are corroborative and are generally done together. MRI finds a place in the evaluation of dense breasts and in multi-centric cancer, said Dr Padmaja Canumalla, Specialist Radiologist, Zulekha Hospital, Dubai.

The high risk factors in breast cancer are patients with mother/sister having cancer breast or cancer ovary, patients on HRT, patients over 60 years, late motherhood and short lactation.

Screening mammography has been proved to have a place in the early detection of breast cancer. The American Cancer Society Recommendations are:

--Physical exam regularly after 20 years age --Base line exam -- between 35 and 39 years --Annual/biannual exam -- between 40 and 49 years --Yearly after 50 years

Breast reporting has been standardised by the American College of Radiologist so that there is good understanding between the reporting radiologist and the treating clinician. Reporting is done based on the breast lexicon and every report is given a category of the BIRADS (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System). This allows a uniform standard interpretation of the report.

According to the RCR guidelines, mammography is not recommended for generalised lumpiness, long standing nipple retraction and cyclical breast pain associated with periods.

The factors which protect from breast cancer are:

--Four or more hours of exercise per week results in about 40 per cent reduction in breast cancer risk. --Physical exercise in adolescence was associated with significantly delayed breast cancer onset. --Healthy weight at menarche and at 21 years significantly delayed breast cancer onset. --Women who average 1.5 drinks per day have a 30 per cent increase in risk. --Radiation is dangerous for young women, especially if they have not completed breast development. --

American Medical Association: Artificial lighting shown to cause health risks.

New studies accepted by the American Medical Association show that nightitme artificial lighting has been shown to cause adverse medical conditions. Furhter studies and hypothesis include links to melatonin and harmone levels, leading to cancer inducing conditions, as well as sleep dysfunctions, particularly among children. 

The American Medical Association Wednesday adopted recommendations based on a report co-authored by a University of Connecticut researcher asserting that certain types of nighttime lighting can adversely affect health and may be linked to breast cancer and other medical conditions.

The AMA's house of delegates voted to adopt policies based on the report "Light Pollution: Adverse Health Effects of Nighttime Lighting," co-authored by Richard Stevens, an epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He was one of four writers.

With the AMA accepting the report, Stevens said, funding should become more readily available for further research.

"There is no question that lighting suppresses circadian rhythms," he said, adding that the next step will be to determine how much it affects specific medical conditions.

Dr. Steven Lockley, a professor of medicine at Harvard University and one of the report's four authors, said the AMA's policies will help educate the public about artificial light, particularly regarding the risks of working night shifts. Studies consistently have shown that shift workers are at a higher risk for breast cancer, heart disease and other health problems.

"The main goal is to increase the awareness of the general health risks, so that people can make informed decisions about their health," he said.

With Wednesday's vote, the AMA now recommends that new technologies be developed to reduce the health risks of indoor and outdoor lighting and calls for more research into the health risks and benefits of exposure to nighttime lighting in workplaces.

"The natural 24-hour cycle of light and dark helps maintain alignment of circadian biological rhythms along with basic processes that help our bodies to function normally," Dr. Alexander Ding, an AMA board member, said Wednesday. "Excessive exposure to nighttime lighting disrupts these essential processes and can create potentially harmful health effects and hazardous situations."

The AMA also recommends that any workplaces with night-shift employees should establish an "employee fatigue risk management plan."

Another of the report's co-authors, Dr. David Blask of the Tulane University School of Medicine, said the AMA's action should bring the issue more into the mainstream.

"A major effect of this is that it's going to put those in the scientific community who are on the fence or wary of this area on notice that it's time to get on board with this, that this is the real deal," Blask said. "And that it has the potential to affect all of us, in addition to shift workers."

"I think it's a big deal," Stevens agreed. "This is a turning point event. When I got started on this, it was like a blip on the radar screen."

Stevens has been studying the effects of nighttime lighting for 25 years and was the first researcher to raise the possibility that there might be a connection to breast cancer.

"I asked in a published a paper in 1987: Could the increase in electric light explain the pandemic of breast cancer?" he said. Stevens co-authored nine of the 134 studies cited in the report.

Like a lot of new scientific concepts, he said, the theory seemed on the fringe at first. But it has slowly gained traction, and more researchers since have focused on other possible adverse health effects of artificial lighting, such as obesity and mood and sleep disorders.

"It's an exploding area, and it's very exciting," he said.

Stevens' theory is that exposure to artificial light for prolonged periods will disrupt the body's biological clock that regulates sleep and wakefulness, known as circadian rhythms. Electric light -- around for only the past 150 years -- has impaired these natural rhythms, which have evolved over millions of years. As a result, Stevens said, hormone and melatonin levels are disrupted and that could lead to the onset of breast cancer.

The report calls artificial light "a man-made self-experiment" that throws sleep out of whack. It also asserts that excessive light at night -- including light from TVs and computers -- can cause sleep disorders, especially in children and adolescents.

New minimally invasive breast cancer treatment in clinical trials.

New minimally invasive breat cancer treatments are showing positive effects in clinical trials. 

CAESAREA, Israel and CLEVELAND, June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IceCure Medical Ltd. announced the first four breast cancer patients treated with the IceSense3(TM) Cryoablation Procedure in Japan. The IceSense3 System was used to treat small breast cancer tumors in a minimally invasive procedure using ultrasound guidance and local anesthesia. These patients were the first four enrolled in a clinical trial of 30 small, early stage breast cancer patients at Kameda Medical Center in Kamogawa City, Japan.

Cryoablation has been used for years to treat both malignant and benign tumors in the body. This new system from IceCure Medical has been developed specifically for breast tumors, and can be performed comfortably with ultrasound guidance. The system uses extremely cold temperatures to destroy (ablate) breast tumors. An attractive alternative to open surgery, the IceSense3 procedure takes place in a physician's office or breast center, and doesn't require sutures or general anesthesia. The system is currently being used worldwide for treatment of fibroadenomas, benign breast tumors, and holds promise as a potential treatment option for malignant breast tumors.

"This procedure is an exciting step towards moving treatment of small, early stage breast cancer tumors from open surgery to a minimally invasive cryoablation procedure," stated Eisuke Fukuma, MD, PhD, Chairman of Breast Center, Kameda Medical Center (Kamogawa City, Japan). 

Read full story release here: http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=13529&Section=DISEASE

Brain Changes Seen In Chemotherapy Treated Cancer Survivors.

Breaking news from health.com 

 In a new study published this week in the Archives of Neurology, Kesler and her colleagues provide more evidence that the phenomenon is real. Using brain scans, the researchers found that breast-cancer survivors show changes in key aspects of mental function that can translate to real-world difficulties. And these changes were particularly marked in women who had undergone chemotherapy.

 Kesler's team investigated prefrontal-executive function, the type of mental activity most commonly reported to go awry in breast-cancer patients. Executive function includes the ability to selectively pay attention, work with information, and choose the appropriate response while suppressing inappropriate responses.

 The study included 25 breast-cancer patients who had undergone chemo, 19 breast-cancer survivors who didn't get chemo, and 18 healthy women. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans, the participants completed a brainteaser in which they tried to discern a pattern in a series of cards printed with colorful geometric shapes. The test, Kesler explains, measures "cognitive flexibility," or the ability to identify the best solution to a problem by mentally testing several possibilities.

Overall, both groups of breast-cancer patients showed less activity than the control group in regions of the brain involved in executive-function tasks such as storing and processing information. And the chemo-treated patients displayed the least activity of any group in parts of the brain associated with cognitive flexibility -- a result that was borne out by the card-sorting task. The chemo patients made the most mistakes on the task, on average, and they took the most time to complete it.

 Many cancer survivors report feeling they've lost some mental sharpness following treatment. This common phenomenon has come to be known as "chemo brain" or "chemo fog," which is somewhat misleading because it also occurs in people who have not undergone chemotherapy. Although recent studies have shown that up to 75 percent of cancer survivors do indeed experience altered mental function -- and that these changes can last for five years or longer -- doctors often downplay complaints about chemo fog, says Shelli R. Kesler, PhD, of the Stanford Cancer Center, in Palo Alto, Calif. "Patients often are told it's not real, they're imagining it, it's just due to stress," she says.

Read the entire article here: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/brain-changes-cancer-chemo-brain_n_1097797.html?ref=health-news&ir=Health%20News

New Study: Walnuts have anti-breast cancer effects in lab tests.

From United Press International: 

09-02-11 

Mice that ate a modest amount of walnuts as part of their regular diet had a significant decline in breast cancer risk, U.S. researchers say.

Study leader by Elaine Hardman of Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine compared the effects of a typical diet and a diet containing walnuts across the lifespan of the mice -- through the mother from conception through weaning and by eating the food directly.

The amount of walnut in the test diet was equal to about 2 ounces a day for humans, Hardman said.

The study -- funded by grants from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the California Walnut Commission, and published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer -- found the group of mice that had a diet that included walnut at both stages developed breast cancer at less than half the rate of the group with the typical diet.

In addition, the number of tumors and their sizes were significantly smaller, the study said.

Using genetic analysis, the researchers found that the walnut-containing diet changed the activity of multiple genes that are relevant to breast cancer in both mice and humans.

However, other testing showed that increases in omega 3 fatty acids did not fully account for the anti-cancer effect and found that tumor growth decreased when dietary vitamin E increased, Hardman said.

European study: Mammograms don't effect breast cancer mortality.

Data recently made available from six European Countries shows findings that mammography screening has had no effect on breast cancer mortality.

from a recent NY Times Article: 

Researchers took advantage of a natural experiment in three pairs of countries. Some had instituted regular mammography screening significantly earlier than the others, but their health care systems and socioeconomic levels were nearly identical. The countries matched for comparison were Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; the Netherlands and Belgium; and Sweden and Norway.

The study, published online July 28 in the British medical journal BMJ, found that in all three cases, earlier implementation of screening had no effect on mortality. For example, in Northern Ireland, screening was introduced in the early 1990s, and by 1995, 75 percent of the women were getting mammograms. In the Republic of Ireland, screening was not introduced until 2000, and it was not until 2008 that 76 percent of the population was screened. Yet from 1989 to 2006, breast cancer mortality decreased by 29.6 percent in Northern Ireland and by 26.7 percent in Ireland.

“We were surprised and quite sad to find that breast cancer screening doesn’t work,” said Dr. Philippe Autier, the lead author. “We were expecting to find the reverse.”

Can the common spice Turmeric slow the spread of Breast Cancer?

Recent studies from the University of California, San Diego,  published in the British Journal, NATURE, have discovered a molecule called RANKL, found in aggressive breast cancer cells that predicts more deadly, lethal and life threatening disease. 

The findings from these recent studies suggests that drugs that block RANKL may be effective in preventing both the early stages of breast cancer and the advanced progression of the disease. Research has shown that Curcumin, the active ingredient in the common spice, Turmeric, has properties that also reduce the expression of these deadly molecules within cancer cells and can potentially slow the spread of breast cancer.

The good news is that there is an Alternative Cancer answer available now without a prescription, the natural substance Curcumin, derived from turmeric that can lower inflammation, lower RANKL, lower risk.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is one of the most potent Cancer Fighting Foods. Curcumin, the active ingredient in this common medicinal and culinary herb has been widely studied.  It is recognized as a potent cell protectant, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory agent.  Turmeric has been used for centuries to support cancer patients in Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine and Indian Ayurvedic Medicine.  Now modern science demonstrates why it works.  Curcumin has been shown to influence many cellular factors, including lowering RANKL.

Curcumin has been shown to decrease RANKL in tumor cells. Curcumin  can block RANKL as well as other inflammatory and tumor promoting molecules in cells (COX-2, LOX-5, MMP2,TNFa, NFKbEGFR, HER2, bFGF, TGF-B1, and VEGF.)  Turmeric is found in many herbal formulas for the prevention and treatment of cancer.

For More info please read the original article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nalini-chilkov/turmeric-health-benefits-_b_828856.html

More Vitamin D findings: deficiency linked to increased breast cancer in women & obesity in children.

There has been a plethora of new findings coming to light in the past year of the importance of neccisary vitamins and minerals in their ability within our bodies to ensure health and natural well-being. In an era where so many of the American population spends an enormous amount of time indoors or under fluorescent lighting with a lessened amount of physical activity outdoors, inherent levels of vitamin D in our bodies can fall to low levels. Recently, many findings are linking low levels of vit. D to an increased likelyhood of a variety of ailments ranging from depression to obesity in children and breast cancer. 

An article published online on October 6, 2010 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports an association with vitamin D deficiency and increased adiposity in school-aged children.

The authors remark that the dramatic rise in obesity rates among children is of concern because obesity during childhood is a risk factor for cardiometabolic disease later in life. Insufficient levels of vitamin D could play a role in childhood obesity due to the vitamin’s influence on the break down and formation of lipids in fat cells.

“Vitamin D serostatus was inversely associated with the development of adiposity in school-age children,” the authors conclude. “Randomized intervention studies are needed to ascertain the effect of improving vitamin D status in children on the risk of obesity and other risk factors for chronic disease.”

Another recent study has found that in persons with darker skin pigmentation, the female population was more succeptable to breast cancer in those that had lower vitamin D levels.

The Third American Association for Cancer Research Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities was the site of a presentation by University of South Carolina associate professor of epidemiology Susan Steck, PhD, MPH of a greater incidence of vitamin D deficiency among African-American women, which was associated with an increased likelihood of aggressive breast cancer.

"We know that darker skin pigmentation acts somewhat as a block to producing vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, which is the primary source of vitamin D in most people," noted Dr Steck.

Vitamin D has been found to help inhibit cell proliferation and induce programmed cell death and differentiation in normal and cancerous breast cells. Dr Steck and her associates measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in 60 African-American and 47 Caucasian women aged 33 to 84 who were diagnosed with breast cancer during the previous 5 years. Vitamin D levels among African American women averaged 19.3 nanograms per milliliter, compared to 29.8 ng/mL in Caucasians. Deficiency, defined as 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels lower than 20 ng/mL occurred in 60 percent of African-American participants, and just 15 percent of Caucasian women.

The researchers found an association between the lowest vitamin D levels and a greater risk of triple-negative breast cancer, which is not responsive to estrogen and progesterone. Additionally, women who were deficient in vitamin D were more than 8 times likelier than nondeficient women to have aggressive disease.

“This study corroborates other research showing racial differences in vitamin D status and provides further support for a protective role of vitamin D in breast cancer, particularly for highly aggressive disease,” the authors conclude. “The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency was high, suggesting the need for monitoring of vitamin D levels among breast cancer patients."