By Frank Bentil
It doesn't matter how old you are, as a woman you are at risk of breast cancer even though it not common for younger women to get breast cancer. It is very complicated and upsetting to be diagnosed with cancer within your childbearing age. In most cases, this is very unexpected.
If you develop breast cancer at a younger age, then you need to make very important and difficult decision about your life and your future. This may lead you to approach life very differently than you originally expected.
It is very rare to develop breast cancer while you are pregnant but it can still happen. When it happens this way, then the treatment should be chosen not only with the affected patient in mind but also with the growing fetus inside her.
Thorough checks must to be conducted on her to determine the stage of the pregnancy and the stage of the cancer before a treatment is settled on.
In most of such cases, pregnant women are treated for the breast cancer and their babies are not affected. But in some cases, it will be risky to receive certain needed treatment with pregnancy. When it happens this way, then obstetricians and health-care practitioners advice for the pregnancy to be terminated, especially in cases where the pregnancy is in its early stage. However, the finally decision to terminate the pregnancy rests on the woman carrying the baby.
The fetus will not be affect in any way from the breast cancer but only that, certain tests and treatments will have bad effect on it. The option for treatment will therefore be limited if the pregnancy is not terminated. Medically, it is not necessary to terminate the pregnancy if the test and treatment will not affect the fetus.
Treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, tamoxifen and other identified drug-related therapies are generally avoided when treating an expectant mother. Such treatment can easily lead to large extent of birth defects. Tamoxifen which is a hormonal therapy is particular classified very unsafe for expectant mother or someone planning to conceive. In addition, taking tamoxifen after chemotherapy to prevent recurrence is as well not encouraged if the woman desires to become pregnant right away. On the other hand, surgery, either mastectomy or lumpectomy is most favored in situations of expectant women
Another controversial issue concerning breast cancer and child bearing is whether or not breast cancer survivors can or should go ahead and have children after they recover from treatment.
Firm advocates on both sides of the debate raises some good questions about the situation such as:
1) To what extent do breast cancer treatments affect fertility? and
2) How safe it is to conceive and carry a baby after breast cancer treatments?
As far as fertility is concern, it is hard to get exact answer here. For example, with chemotherapy the extent to which it affect fertility depends on the age of the victim and the specific drug used.
The ideal situation according to many doctors is for breast cancer survivors to wait several years to ensure the disease is completely cure and has no possibility of recurrence before they think about child bearing. However, some women decide to go ahead and have babies right away, since it's so important to them.
Breast cancer can be effectively treated if it is detected early enough. It is therefore strongly advised that we all become aware of rel=nofollow [http://freedom-from-breast-cancer.blogspot.com/2009/04/breast-cancer-symptoms.html]breast cancer symptoms so we can seek medical advice as early as possible.
For more helpful information on Breast Cancer Treatment or anything related to Breast Cancer, you can visit [http://freedom-from-breast-cancer.blogspot.com]http://freedom-from-breast-cancer.blogspot.com, a website dedicated to help all to be free from Breast Cancer.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Spontaneous Breast Cancer Remission
By Kirsten Whittaker
Though many woman dread that yearly mammogram, we've all heard often enough that early detection of breast cancer saves lives... finding lumps when they're too small to feel and before they get a chance to grow and spread gives you the best chance for a cure.
Or does it?
A recent study of mammography screening for breast cancer found that some invasive cancers might spontaneously regress over time, leaving no sign that they were ever present in a woman's body.
This leaves us to question if breast cancer is over diagnosed, and therefore over treated.
The research, conducted by Norwegian scientists, used 119,472 female subjects aged 50 to 64 years, who underwent three rounds of mammography (one mammogram every two years) from 1996 to 2001 as part of the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program.
The cancer rates in this group were compared with the cancer rates of 109,784 control subjects who would have been screened if the program existed back in 1992. The control subjects were invited to have a one-time mammogram at the end of the observation period.
The team had expected that no matter when they were detected, the number of breast cancer tumors would ultimately be the same between the regularly screened group and the never screened controls.
As the researchers expected, the 4-year cumulative incidence of invasive breast cancer in the screened group was higher than in the non-screened control group - 1268 vs. 810 cases per one thousand women.
However, the surprise finding of the research was that even after the one time mammography was given to the previously unscreened control group, the six year cumulative incidence of breast cancer in the mammography screened group was still higher - 1909 vs. 1564 cases per one thousand women.
The study authors couldn't explain this.
There were no obvious differences between the two groups, and since that all important cumulative incidence of cancer in the control group never reached, even after one time screening, the mammography screened group of subjects, it lends support to the idea that some cancers found on repeat scans wouldn't show up on a single scan at the end of six years.
The study authors note, "This raises the possibility that the natural course of some screen-detected invasive breast cancers is to spontaneously regress."
Perhaps as many as one in five cancers detected by mammogram might, in fact, spontaneously resolve.
And since two out of three breast cancer tumors are estrogen driven, the drop off of the hormone as women age and go through menopause suggests that cancer cells are naturally starved of the very hormone they need to grow and thrive.
The tumors might disappear altogether or shrink and lie dormant. The discontinuation of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a treatment for menopausal symptoms and the dramatic decrease in breast cancer rates lends fuel to the idea that hormones may fuel the growth of some cancers.
While this study is absolutely not a recommendation to skip your yearly mammogram, it does raise an intriguing question about cancers that may resolve themselves... without our ever knowing or treating them.
"If the spontaneous remission hypothesis is credible, it could cause a major reevaluation in the approach to breast cancer research and treatment," says cancer expert Dr. Robert M. Kaplan of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dr. Franz Porzsolt, from the University of Ulm, Germany in a related story that appeared with the study.
In effect, it could in the future lead to an approach that is already used for a well known cancer in men, prostate cancer, where a "Watchful Waiting" approach is sometimes advised.
Next just head on over to the [http://www.reallyworks.org/?source=ez]Daily Health Bulletin for more health tips on cancer like this one on [http://reallyworks.org/blog/category/cancer/]breast cancer remission and get 5 free revealing health reports.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Spontaneous-Breast-Cancer-Remission&id=1860586]
By Kirsten Whittaker
Though many woman dread that yearly mammogram, we've all heard often enough that early detection of breast cancer saves lives... finding lumps when they're too small to feel and before they get a chance to grow and spread gives you the best chance for a cure.
Or does it?
A recent study of mammography screening for breast cancer found that some invasive cancers might spontaneously regress over time, leaving no sign that they were ever present in a woman's body.
This leaves us to question if breast cancer is over diagnosed, and therefore over treated.
The research, conducted by Norwegian scientists, used 119,472 female subjects aged 50 to 64 years, who underwent three rounds of mammography (one mammogram every two years) from 1996 to 2001 as part of the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program.
The cancer rates in this group were compared with the cancer rates of 109,784 control subjects who would have been screened if the program existed back in 1992. The control subjects were invited to have a one-time mammogram at the end of the observation period.
The team had expected that no matter when they were detected, the number of breast cancer tumors would ultimately be the same between the regularly screened group and the never screened controls.
As the researchers expected, the 4-year cumulative incidence of invasive breast cancer in the screened group was higher than in the non-screened control group - 1268 vs. 810 cases per one thousand women.
However, the surprise finding of the research was that even after the one time mammography was given to the previously unscreened control group, the six year cumulative incidence of breast cancer in the mammography screened group was still higher - 1909 vs. 1564 cases per one thousand women.
The study authors couldn't explain this.
There were no obvious differences between the two groups, and since that all important cumulative incidence of cancer in the control group never reached, even after one time screening, the mammography screened group of subjects, it lends support to the idea that some cancers found on repeat scans wouldn't show up on a single scan at the end of six years.
The study authors note, "This raises the possibility that the natural course of some screen-detected invasive breast cancers is to spontaneously regress."
Perhaps as many as one in five cancers detected by mammogram might, in fact, spontaneously resolve.
And since two out of three breast cancer tumors are estrogen driven, the drop off of the hormone as women age and go through menopause suggests that cancer cells are naturally starved of the very hormone they need to grow and thrive.
The tumors might disappear altogether or shrink and lie dormant. The discontinuation of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a treatment for menopausal symptoms and the dramatic decrease in breast cancer rates lends fuel to the idea that hormones may fuel the growth of some cancers.
While this study is absolutely not a recommendation to skip your yearly mammogram, it does raise an intriguing question about cancers that may resolve themselves... without our ever knowing or treating them.
"If the spontaneous remission hypothesis is credible, it could cause a major reevaluation in the approach to breast cancer research and treatment," says cancer expert Dr. Robert M. Kaplan of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dr. Franz Porzsolt, from the University of Ulm, Germany in a related story that appeared with the study.
In effect, it could in the future lead to an approach that is already used for a well known cancer in men, prostate cancer, where a "Watchful Waiting" approach is sometimes advised.
Next just head on over to the [http://www.reallyworks.org/?source=ez]Daily Health Bulletin for more health tips on cancer like this one on [http://reallyworks.org/blog/category/cancer/]breast cancer remission and get 5 free revealing health reports.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Spontaneous-Breast-Cancer-Remission&id=1860586]
By Kirsten Whittaker
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