Recent Blog Posts by Karen

Kudos to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for organizing some of the most innovative research endeavors in the field of breast cancer research. Last year they revamped their research program that addresses the reality of research in this area: it takes more than a one-time, one year grant to a researcher in order to move the needle.

A new study that appeared in the June 24th issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute describes a newly discovered portion of chromosome 8 that appears to have five regions that are associated with different types of cancers. The region, called 8q24, has no known genes (and is known as a gene desert).

While still in the experimental stages, a new imaging system holds promise as a cheaper alternative to MRIs. Molecular breast imaging (MBI), utilizes an injection of tracer particles that are only picked up by cells that are more active than normal, such as cancer cells. A camera then picks up the gamma rays emitted by the tracer particles.

There was an interesting story on CNN recently about the number of times that terminal patients were given “straight talk” by their doctors of the severity of their situation and end of life care options. The impetus for this story was a study led by Dana Farber Cancer Institute that followed 603 terminally ill cancer patients with life expectancies of less than a year. The conclusion: only about a third of the patients had a discussion with their doctor about their end of life care options.

How’s this for another reason to get screened early and often for breast cancer?

A survey of the Medicare costs for treating cancer, published in the June 10 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, looked at the costs of treating various types of cancer, including breast, lung, colorectal and prostate cancer between 1991 and 2002. They found that treatment costs had increased for most types of cancer. The cost of the average breast cancer treatment, for example, rose by $4,189. Since the study only went through 2002, many new but expensive drugs weren’t included in the figures.

About a year ago, news was made when a vaccine for cervical cancer was put on the market. Controversial in many ways, including the notion that young girls were the ideal targets for the vaccine, it was the first time that a vaccine was marketed to prevent a risk factor for cancer.

Talk about using your own experience to help others! Joy Jones found that regular clothing stores were just plain unhelpful and even treated her coldly after her mastectomy when she went to buy bras, swimsuits and clothing items in general. She heard similar stories from her friends, including one woman who said she was told by a sales clerk fitting her for a wig that she had the biggest head she had ever seen.

Young women diagnosed with breast cancer have many more issues facing them than just getting through their cancer experience and minimizing their chance of a recurrence. Often the treatment choices they are presented with have tradeoffs involving the likelihood that they will ever be able to have and/or add to their families.

So, finally, the die has been cast and we know who will face off this November for the job of President of the United States. There are a number of issues that they will have to address over these next five months, but one that has not gotten much attention is their views on the war on cancer.

There is a new blood test that will show doctors treating metastatic breast cancer patients how well their current chemotherapy treatments are progressing in one-third of the time. Cell Search, developed out of Georgetown University, is a blood test that detects the presence and amount of cancer cells in the blood of metastatic breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Kudos to a Massachusetts-based companyby the name of Hologic that takes mammography to a whole new level. Their innovation is something called digital tomosynthesis, which involves taking many pictures of the breast from different angles. The end result is up to 100 images, which can be arranged to form a three dimensional picture of the breast tissues and a more thorough view of the breast, including cancerous tissue hidden behind other tissues.

A recent article in Forbes describes the race underway by pharmaceutical companies to develop the “next big thing” in cancer therapies. It is a race that we want them to win, of course. This article provided some interesting insight into the different approaches that many are taking as well as the downside that some see as a result of their actions.

So asks a recent Wall Street Journal article (subscription required for link) that tells the story of a leukemia patient who was asked to pay $105,000 before beginning her treatments at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. M.D. Anderson is a world renowned cancer center that is part of the University of Texas.

Today is my 6 year survivor milestone! Wow – can you believe it? It was six years ago today that I had my last chemo treatment and walked out of my doctor’s office, in my mind, a true survivor. I had survived two surgeries, radiation and chemo. I was ready to turn the page and tackle what I regarded as my second chance at life.

Whether or not to discuss breast cancer with employers and co-workers is a tricky subject. In February, I wrote about the issue after the New York Times published an article on revealing or concealing illness in the workplace.

We’ve been conditioned to hearing ads on television that describe how aspirin helps the heart. But now, a report recently published in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research suggests that it might have beneficial effects on certain members of the breast cancer community, too. In a study that included 127,000 women ages 51-72 with no history of cancer, it was found that aspirin use was linked to a small reduction in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers.

Breast cancer has often found itself the subject of TV shows (remember when Samantha in “Sex and the City” was diagnosed) and even a few movies here and there (last year's In the Land of Women features a supporting character rediscovering herself after cancer).

Can it be true that a blood test for breast cancer is right around the corner? Well, maybe – and it might even be covered by insurance! Are we dreaming?

Okay, I admit it. I am a book fanatic. I buy far more than I read, but I find something comforting and soothing about having books surround me. I guess part of that feeling started many moons ago when I was a small girl. Each week, my mom and I would walk to the shopping center where she would buy me a book, which we would read together when we returned home.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation recently announced that is has awarded more than $100 million in grants this year to a number of researchers whose major research focus is to reduce deaths from breast cancer in the next 10 years.

That morning cuppa joe might actually do more for women that wake them up. So says a report from researchers at Lund University and Malmo University in Sweden. After studying more than 460 women, they found that drinking two to three cups of coffee a day can either reduce the total risk of developing breast cancer or delay its onset. The research findings relate to a particular variant of a certain gene that a woman has.

Even if you don’t follow baseball, you should really tune in to your favorite home town team on Sunday, May 11th when baseball players across the league will sport pink wristbands, ribbons and even use pink bats all in the name of breast cancer awareness and research. This promotion is the brainchild of the Komen Foundation, which started this program three years ago, and plan to auction the bats to raise money for breast cancer research.

Sometimes it is hard to know how to process all of the information that the media presents on women’s health issues. Not long ago, reports suggested that one glass of red wine every day minimized the risk of heart disease in women. Now, this week, research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting reported on a study that suggests a link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer in post-menopausal woman.

HER2-neu is among the most aggressive and therefore deadliest forms of breast cancer, in part, because it is not estrogen-sensitive and traditional breast cancer treatments are ineffective in treating it.