Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

The Army of Women: Are You a Member?

You may not have heard of the Army of Women, but they're doing important work in the fight against breast cancer--with a twist. It's part of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, which is dedicated to finding ways to prevent--not just treat--breast cancer. Here's a list of their current research projects. The Army of Women provides grants to researchers doing work in this area, and right now they need volunteers living in the Boston area who have never had breast cancer. Researchers at Tufts University are trying to understand why giving birth before age 25 and having several kids seems to protect against this common cancer. Here's what's required:

If you are eligible and agree to participate in the Pregnancy and Breast Cancer Risk Study, you will be contacted by phone and asked questions about your pregnancy, medical, and smoking history to confirm your eligibility. If you are eligible for the study, the researchers will ask you to give them permission to request your medical records from your doctor. You will also be asked to meet with the researchers one time at Tufts University School of Medicine in downtown Boston. During this appointment a breast surgeon will perform 4-6 core breast biopsies, removing cells from your breast with a needle under local anesthesia. This is an outpatient procedure and usually takes approximately 20 minutes.

The researchers need to enroll 85 women in this study.

If you're interested, register at the Army of Women and see if you're qualified to participate in this or another of their studies. 

What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer Screening--But Probably Don't

What do you know about the density of your breasts? Why does it matter? Read this post by Dr. Nalini Chilkov at the Huffington Post about how the density of a woman's breasts should probably determine the screening exam that she gets every year. A mammogram? Maybe not. If you have time, watch this video of a talk given by Deborah Rhodes, MD, a physician at the Mayo Clinic explaining dual-head gamma imaging, a technique that may be a better choice for women with dense breasts. Dr. Rhodes and her colleagues have an article in the Journal of Radiology this month detailing the use of the new technique. Interestingly, Dr. Rhodes notes that she will not benefit financially from wider use of this technology in women with dense breasts. (That's important information.) Stay tuned. I think this will be a big story in the months ahead. 

And ask your doctor about your breast density. 

Volunteers Needed: Study on Breast Cancer, Stress, and Sleep

If you live in Northern California, consider getting involved with this study sponsored by the Army of Women:

Too much stress and not enough sleep are two things that many women know all too well. But, could they be linked to breast cancer? That is what a group of researchers at Stanford University want to find out. They are studying the effect that stress and sleep-related hormones may have on the immune system and cancer progression.

Who Can Participate? You can join the Stress and Breast Cancer study if you match ALL of these MAIN categories:

•You are a woman between 45 and 75 

•You have been diagnosed with metastatic or recurrent breast cancer at somepoint during your life

•You live in Northern California (willing to travel to Stanford University and live no more than a one-hour time zone away from California)

•You are able to travel to Stanford University and stay overnight in the hospital

•You have not had another cancer in the past 10 years other than breast cancer, skin cancer, or in situ cancer of the cervix

Get Rid of a Healthy Breast--Or Not?

It makes sense on one level: Have both breasts removed--including the apparently "healthy" one--if you develop breast cancer. Many women apparently think this is an ideal way to improve their chances of living a long life, not to mention avoiding additional hassles with a new cancer in the other breast. But it's not that simple, as Tara Parker-Pope reports in today's New York Times. She explains that as many as 10% of women in their 40s who have breast cancer surgery request double mastectomies.

But...long-term survival after breast cancer apparently is not improved by prophylactic (preventive) removal of a healthy breast, according to a huge (108,000 women) study, whose results were just published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The possible exceptions include young women (younger than 50) who have early estrogen-receptor-negative tumors that can't be effectively treated with drugs like Tamoxifen that are commonly given to keep breast cancer at bay in women at high risk.

Why?

Breast Cancer Research: The Army of Women Program

This is an interesting find. Breast cancer expert Susan Love, MD, has partnered with Avon to form the Army of Women. Here's their stated goal:

• To recruit one million healthy women of every age and ethnicity, including breast cancer survivors and women at high-risk for the disease, to partner with breast cancer researchers and directly participate in the research that will eradicate breast cancer once and for all.
• To challenge the scientific community to expand its current focus to include breast cancer prevention research conducted on healthy women.

If you sign up, they'll send you information about studies that are recruiting participants. These might be breast cancer treatment studies, or long-term studies on prevention. So regardless of whether you've had breast cancer or not, you can help. Why not?

Migraine may "Prevent" Breast Cancer

Scientists know that falling estrogen levels can lead to migraine in some women. The same decrease in estrogen may lower breast cancer risk. Physician's First Watch reports:

"Researchers pooled data from two studies of postmenopausal women to compare odds ratios among 1900 with breast cancer and 1400 controls. Women with a migraine diagnosis showed reduced risks for ductal and lobular carcinomas — especially hormone-receptor–positive tumors.

The authors speculate that the effect derives from the association between migraine and estrogen. "Low levels of serotonin are clearly associated with increased frequency of migraine, and estrogen positively regulates serotonin," they write."

USA Today covers the angles and includes interviews with some scientists who are not so sure about a causal relationship between migraine and estrogen. Another calls the findings interesting but without much practical application. The original study appears in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention. 

Do Negative "Life Events" Increase Breast Cancer Risk?

This is a bit of a surprise. Israeli researchers found that young women who'd experienced a loss of some kind had a higher risk of breast cancer. Here's part of the write-up in today's ScienceDaily:

"Ronit Peled from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, led a team of researchers who questioned 255 women with breast cancer and 367 healthy controls about their life experiences and evaluated their levels of happiness, optimism, anxiety and depression prior to diagnosis. Peled said, "Young women who have been exposed to a number of negative life events should be considered an 'at-risk' group for breast cancer and should be treated accordingly".

The researchers do point out that women were interviewed after their diagnosis, which may colour their recall of their past emotional state somewhat negatively. However, according to Peled, "We can carefully say that experiencing more than one severe and/or mild to moderate life event is a risk factor for breast cancer among young women. On the other hand, a general feeling of happiness and optimism can play a protective role".

The authors point out that, "The mechanism in which the central nervous, hormonal and immune systems interact and how behaviour and external events modulate these three systems is not fully understood". As such, they suggest that "The relationship between happiness and health should be examined in future studies and relevant preventative initiatives should be developed".

The original study appears in an upcoming issue of the journal BMC Cancer. This is a hot potato.

Breast Cancer? Join a Research Study

From the Society for Women's Health Research comes an invitation:

"...patients are now being recruited for an online study that is measuring cognitive limitations of women breast cancer survivors who return to work. The study is being led by Lt. Lisseth Calvio, M.S., of the U.S. Navy, who is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

The study is looking for female breast cancer survivors, one to 10 years after primary treatment, such as surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, and women who have never had cancer. The women should be working full time and be between the ages of 18 and 65.

“The study is trying to verify the best way to measure cognitive limitations,” Calvio said. “A lot of breast cancer patients are expressing changes in their cognitive function. First, how do we measure that?  Once that is determined, we can develop strategies to treat or help cancer survivors.”

Autism and Vaccines: Autism One Conference, Chicago

AMEDnews reports evenhandedly on the Autism One conference, which was held in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend.One of the featured speakers was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose 1998 paper in The Lancet claimed an association between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in 12 kids. But this is what's happened since then, quoting from AMEDNews:

"Every so often, a small study such as the one conducted by Dr. Wakefield comes along to buttress that belief. In this case, the momentum has held, even though 10 of the 13 authors on the 1998 paper published a statement inThe Lancet in 2004 retracting the original interpretation that their data indicated a causal link between MMR and autism, and Dr. Wakefield faces significant professional scrutiny."

That is, Dr. Wakefield is in danger of losing his license to practice. In June, the UK health authorities declared that measles is now endemic in that country and confirmed a recent measles-related death. In the US, measles rates are at their highest since 2001. It's more than spots: encephalitis and pneumonia are just two possible complications.

Damage done.

If You're at Risk for Diabetes, You're at Risk for Advanced Breast Cancer, Too

Scientists have known for awhile that women who are overweight and at risk for diabetes are also at elevated risk for breast cancer. Now, a study of 60,000 Swedish women followed since the mid-1980s (a huge, long study), brings even worse news. Being overweight and insulin resistant makes you vulnerable to diabetes and to more clinically advanced breast cancer. The data is being presented this week at a meeting in Brisbane, Australia called the Population Health 2008 conference. The findings are summarized at ScienceDaily. Here's a snippet from an interview with one of the investigators, Dr. Anne Cust:

"Women with insulin resistance or who were overweight were less likely to be diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancers but at greater risk of being diagnosed with stage 2 to 4 tumors -- larger more advanced cancers,'' she said. "We know that being overweight and having insulin resistance is a risk factor for getting cancer but - in the case of breast cancer - our study indicates that the cancer will be more advanced."