Will My Breast Cancer Come Back? Reducing the Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence After Surgery

More than 215,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. For many of them, surgery to remove the tumor is just the first step in the battle against the disease, often followed by radiation and/or chemotherapy. After that, these women may need to decide with their doctor whether to have "adjuvant therapy"-medication to help prevent their cancer from coming back.

When a woman's breast cancer does come back or spreads to other parts of the body, she may be at greater risk of dying from the disease. Women whose breast cancer is detected in the nearby lymph nodes at diagnosis and those who receive chemotherapy after surgery are considered to be at increased risk for breast cancer recurrence.

Postmenopausal women whose early-stage breast cancer is hormone-sensitive have a new option as their first hormone therapy following surgery. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved Femara® (letrozole tablets) on December 28, 2005 for this type of use. This approval was based on a median of 24 months of treatment. The study is still ongoing to determine the long-term safety and efficacy of Femara. Already a leading breast cancer treatment, Femara is now the only medicine in a group called aromatase inhibitors that is approved for use both immediately following surgery and after five years of tamoxifen. The FDA granted Femara a priority review, a distinction reserved for medications that could potentially offer a significant improvement compared to products currently on the market.

A panel from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the country's leading group of oncologists, recommends aromatase inhibitors, such as Femara, be part of the optimal adjuvant treatment for this group of women.

"One of the greatest fears confronted by women who have been treated for early breast cancer is that their cancer will come back. With Femara, we now have an option that can help address that fear early on, even in patients who we know face the greatest risk of recurrence," said Matthew Ellis, MD, PhD, FRCP, director of the Breast Cancer Program at Washington University in St. Louis.

In a large clinical study of post-surgery breast cancer treatment, researchers compared the effectiveness of Femara and tamoxifen, another drug prescribed after surgery. An analysis performed after 26 months showed that Femara reduced the risk of breast cancer coming back by 21% over the reduction offered by tamoxifen. Patients taking Femara also showed a 27 percent reduction in the risk of the cancer spreading to distant parts of the body.

In this study, women at increased risk of recurrence experienced the greatest benefit from Femara. Femara lowered this risk by 29 percent in women whose breast cancer had already spread to the lymph nodes at the time of diagnosis and by 30 percent in women who had prior chemotherapy. The results also showed that in these high-risk women, Femara reduced the risk of cancer spreading to distant parts of the body by 33 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

In this study, Femara was generally well tolerated with the most common side effects including hot flashes, joint pain, night sweats, weight gain and nausea.

Tips for Living Healthy

Discuss postsurgery treatment options with an oncologist. Whether you're one, five or 10 years beyond your diagnosis, taking care of your overall health and well-being can also reduce your risk of cancer coming back and give you the energy to do the things in life that you love.

• Practice good nutrition

• Exercise regularly

• Tap into a support network

• Take time out for yourself

Editors Note: Important safety information

Femara® (letrozole tablets) is approved for the adjuvant (following surgery) treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor−positive early breast cancer. The benefits of Femara in clinical trials are based on 24 months of treatment. Further follow-up will be needed to determine long-term results, safety and effectiveness.

Talk to your doctor if you're allergic to Femara or any of its ingredients. You should not take Femara if you are pregnant as it may cause fetal harm. You must be postmenopausal to take Femara. Some women reported fatigue and dizziness with Femara. Until you know how it affects you, use caution before driving or operating machinery. There was an increase in cholesterol in patients on Femara versus tamoxifen (5.4% vs. 1.2%).

In the adjuvant setting, commonly reported side effects were generally mild to moderate. Side effects seen in Femara versus tamoxifen included hot flashes (33.7% vs. 38%), joint pain (21.2% vs. 13.5%), night sweats (14.1% vs. 13.5%), weight gain (10.7% vs. 12.9%) and nausea (9.5% vs. 10.4%). Other side effects seen were bone fractures and osteoporosis.

About the Author:
Wade Gibson
More information is at 1-866-4FEMARA or www.femara.com or www.us.novartisoncology.com.
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Is Your Back Pain Symbolic Of Future Lung Cancer?

The reasons for back pain are many and the symptoms of lung cancer are many more.

Whether you have lung cancer due to back pain or back pain due to lung cancer…the symptoms are so confusing and inter-related, that at times, the diagnosis becomes even more complicated.

Many a times, the cough or shortness of breath is accompanied by back pain. And you had thought that it is a respiratory illness! This could be the early stage of cancer and the right time and state to treat it indeed!

Pain in back, chest or shoulder that does not go away and gets worse with deep breathing, accompanied by swelling in the neck and face, with increasing fatigue and weakness could be the symptoms of cancer in the lung. And the underlying back pain will cause you recurring respiratory infections such as pneumonia along.

Figures and statistics from the USA regarding the back pain are mind boggling. It is reported that 80% of the Americans cope with back pain at some point of their lives. 7 million people are treated for back pain every year. The new cases of pack pain reported every year are 2 million. The loss/amount spent every year on medical bills, disability and lost productivity at work is estimated to be 100 billion dollars!

There is so much confusion with regard to the treatment of the back pain itself…that the back pain related to lung cancer is ought to be confusing for the patient. The first step you need to take when it is a case of continuous back pain is to have a detailed medical checkup. Instead of doing guesswork, and trying out various antibiotics, pain-killers and taking pot shots at the state of your health, you need to adopt a line of treatment. This definitely must be followed over the preliminary investigation stage.

No over the counter medication has cured any back pain completely. If your back pain is confirmed to be of the chronic type, it is most likely to trouble you over a long period of time.

You need to prevent your back pain from getting into the lung cancer fold. To fight lung cancer, what is required is you need to have perfect metabolism within your body. No diseases can come at your back or any other parts of your body, if your internal system is free of toxins. So adopt healthy lifestyle changes and resort to yoga exercises as they are the perfect treatment for back pain. This is now accepted world over.

About the Author:
Javier Fuller
To read more articles on Back pain and lung cancer, Living with backpain and Diagnosis of backpain visit http://www.backpaindetails.com/pain/
Added: 16 Oct 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/39529.html

Overall Risk of Cancer Cut By 37%...

What do you think about this?

* Overall cancer risk reduced by 37%
* Overall reduction in cancer mortality rates by 50%
* 30% reduction of colorectal cancer.

Sounds like the sort of claims someone standing on a soapbox trying to sell snake oil would make... but SURPRISE... these statements are coming from the mainstream... and the results are from simple natural multi-vitamins NOT pharmaceutical drugs!

But that is not all! It is now being said that if everyone over 65 took a multi every day that the US taxpayer would save $1.6 billion over 5 years in Medicare costs due to a reduced incidence of coronary artery disease and other diseases triggered by weak immune systems.

These figures do NOT factor in the financial savings brought about by the reduction of colorectal cancer, diabetes, prostate cancer and a whole host of other ailments that can likely be avoided through proper nutritional supplementation. If these were factored in then the savings would be MUCH greater.

OK... who is saying these things?

Earlier this month there was a conference in Washington DC entitled "Multivitamins and Public Health: Exploring the Evidence."

Presented at this conference were the results of a study just completed by the Lewin Group (a health care consulting firm). It was funded by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare which is part of Wyeth Pharmaceutical Group. This is what the researchers did:

They analyzed more than 125 clinical studies plus scientific literature to determine whether or not multivitamins gave any health benefits and if so, whether these benefits translated into savings in healthcare bills for people 65 years of age or older.

The director of the Lewin Group, Allen Dobson, PhD put the study results into perspective when he said, "finding any cost savings for preventative measures is unusual and finding cost savings of this magnitude ($1.6B) is very rare."

It is a refreshing turn around for someone associated with 'mainstream' medicine to actually concede that preventive measures actually do work. As you have probably noticed over the last couple of years there have been many misleading statements from spokespeople in the 'mainstream' medical field doing their best to discourage people from the use of natural preventive remedies.

More positive 'mainstream' comments...

The positive 'mainstream' comment doesn't end with this study! During the same week that the conference in Washington was held the results of another study was published in the American Journal of Epidermiology which is a 'mainstream' publication. This was a study carried out by Harvard during the last twenty years.

The results will no doubt annoy many opponents of natural preventive medicines but the facts speak for themselves. Here are the highlights:

* The study involved approximately 145,000 middle aged or elderly adults.
* In 1982 these adults were surveyed regarding their multi-vitamin use.
* Their use was reassessed 10 years later in 1992.
* They were then followed up again over the next five years.
* During that period 797 of the participants developed colorectal cancer.

What the researchers found is that after adjusting for 'health conscious' behaviors those participants that had regularly used multi vitamins since the start of the study (at least 10 years) had a 30% decreased risk of developing colon/rectal cancer.

They also found that those people who had only recently started taking supplements had no protection in the short term and that the benefits only manifested themselves over the long term. This is an important point to remember. Start early not later. Increasing your immunity from cancer is a steady building up process over the long term.

This study ties in with another well known study in which selenium (in the correct form) was found to reduce the incidence of all cancers by 37% and overall mortality from cancer by 50%.

These two studies only deal with vitamins and one mineral. They do not include the many reputable studies that have clearly established antioxidants on their own also play a major role in cancer prevention. Unfortunately most people never get to hear about most of these studies. If they did and they acted upon it a lot of pain and suffering could be avoided.

Now here is something to think about!

If the risk of cardiovascular disease and other diseases brought on by poor immunity can be reduced significantly by a simple multi vitamin, and further, that the risk of colon/rectal cancer can be also reduced by 30% through multi-vitamins, and in addition, if the risk of other cancers can be reduced by 37% by just one mineral,selenium.

What would happen to your overall risk profile if you did the following?

* You took all the key nutrients proven in clinical studies to be effective for cardiovascular health
* Digestive health
* Hormonal health
* Key organ health including the brain
* And included selected enzymes and immunity enhancing herbal extracts
* Used the latest scientific knowledge of synergy and metabolic pathways to magnify the effects of the individual substances and you put them all into a capsule or tablet?

I know the answer because we have done just this when we produced Total Balance which was developed firstly for the protection of my own family and secondly for the benefit of our customers world-wide. But... I can't tell you what I believe is the answer because I would get into trouble with the authorities as it is not proven as yet by clinical trials. Instead we can only relate to clinical studies that have been carried out on the individual nutrients that we use.

But... I can leave it to your imagination. To help your iagination whilst pondering on this I can tell you that multi-vitamin products are very weak (but they are inexpensive).

Other vitamin like products such as the quite common alpha lipoic acid are many more times potent that common vitamins. Same thing applies to some of the other amino acids, herbal extracts and enzymes.

I've related to you the results of the studies from a just a few vitamins and one mineral. I think that you would get the picture and understand what I am getting at if you studied the ingredient list of Total Balance.

The efficacy of the Total Balance formula for overall health is not just a few times greater than a typical multi, but hundreds of time more potent. This is not an idle comment but one based on science.

It is important to aim to enter your latter years free from the negative effects of pharmaceutical drugs. It is never too soon to start your prevention program!

About the author:
Warren Matthews is the Chairman of Xtend Life Natural Products, designer and manufacturer of Total Balance, a highly advanced supplement designed to provide complete immune support. Total Balance is the worlds first multi-nutrient supplement featuring an enteric coating. This unique coating allows your body to absorb virtually 100% of it's 74 nutrients.
Available at ... http://www.InstantEnergyBoost.com
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