Oncologic Advisors

9 Ways You Can Reduce Your Breast Cancer Risk

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According to the latest statistics, one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Luckily with new advancements in treatment, the mortality associated with breast cancer has decreased. Still the disease claims over 40,000 lives a year in the US alone, so knowing how to reduce your risk of breast cancer is an important asset.

What Causes Breast Cancer?

Breast cancer is the result of DNA mutations, which is characterized by a solid tumor that originates in the tissue of the breast. There are a few different factors that can cause this DNA mutation. The majority of them are acquired later in life. The most common age of diagnosis is 65. Age is the main risk factor for breast cancer simply because the longer you live, the more opportunity there is for the DNA in your breast to develop a mutation.

Sometimes these DNA mutations are inherited at birth, like the BRCA1 or BCRA2 gene. If your family has a history of breast cancer, it is important to go through screening and genetic treatment early, as sometimes preventative treatment is recommended. (NY Daily News)

Your breast cancer risk is also tied to certain other health issues, which is where our 9 ways to reduce your risk come in. Some recent studies have found that there are in fact some changes you can make and habits you can work on to reduce your odds of getting breast cancer:

  1. Be mindful of your weight. Becoming overweight or obese (especially after menopause or later in life) increases breast cancer risk. This is because after menopause, most of your estrogen comes from fat tissue. Having more fat tissue increases your chance of getting breast cancer by raising estrogen levels. Women who are overweight also tend to have higher levels of insulin, which is another hormone. Higher insulin levels have also been linked to other cancers.
  2. Exercise regularly. A few different studies have found that exercising regularly can improve your chances of avoiding breast cancer. One particular study from the Women’s Health Initiative found that as little as 1.25 to 2.5 hours of brisk walking per week reduced a woman’s risk by 18%. The American Cancer Society recommends that you don’t try to cram this into one long workout, but instead spread it out over the course of the week.
  3. Limit time spent sitting. A study from the American Cancer Society showed that women who spent more than 6 hours a day sitting when not working had a 10% greater risk for invasive breast cancer compared with women who sat less than 3 hours a day.
  4. Limit your drinking. Research has shown that women who have 2 to 3 alcoholic drinks a day have about a 20% higher risk compared to women who don’t drink at all. Women who have one drink a day have a very small increase in risk as well. Excessive drinking has been found to increase your risk of other cancer types as well. (American Cancer Society)
  5. Don’t smoke. It’s no surprise that smoking is bad for your health. However, accumulating evidence suggests that there’s actually a link between smoking and breast cancer risk, particularly in premenopausal women.
  6. Breastfeed. According to the Mayo Clinic, breast-feeding may play a role in breast cancer prevention. They suggest that the longer you breastfeed, the greater the protective effect. (Mayo Clinic)
  7. Avoid or limit hormone replacement therapy. Hormone replacement therapy (or HRT) was used in the past to help control some symptoms of menopause like night sweats and hot flashes. Researchers now know that postmenopausal women who take the combination of estrogen and progestin may be more likely to develop breast cancer. Breast cancer risk appears to return to normal within five years after stopping this treatment. (American Cancer Society).
So instead, talk to your doctor about other options to control your menopause symptoms. If you do decide that HRT is the right choice for you, it’s best to use the lowest dose you can for the shortest possible time.
  1. Avoid exposure to radiation and environmental pollution. While environmental pollution can be difficult to protect yourself against, there are steps you can take to reduce your exposure to radiation. Medical-imaging methods, such as computerized tomography, use high doses of radiation that may be linked with developing breast cancer. Reduce your exposure by having a conversation with your doctor to make sure every test is absolutely necessary before they’re done.
  2. Receive annual mammograms starting at age 40. Since most of the time breast cancer does not cause symptoms until the disease is quite advanced, it is important to detect it long before symptoms appear. For most women, starting at age 40 is early enough, but higher risk patients (like women with a mother or sister who had cancer at an early age) may need to start getting mammograms much earlier. (NY Daily News)

Hopefully knowing and practicing these tips will put your mind at ease from worrying about breast cancer. For more information, be sure to look to the sources provided below.

References

https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/five-ways-to-reduce-your-breast-cancer-risk.html

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/womens-health/in-depth/breast-cancer-prevention/art-20044676

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/preventative-steps-breast-cancer-risk-article-1.3615576

Can IMRT be the cure for a cancer that was thought to be incurable?

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There is new hope for some patients with prostate cancer, thanks to a joint study by the Institute of Cancer Research in London and the UK’s leading cancer hospital, the Royal Marsden. The study found that a treatment option called IMRT could cure thousands of men whose disease was before thought to be incurable.

For patients with prostate cancer, the following treatment options are usually advised (depending on how far the cancer has spread and how aggressive it is):
– Hormonal treatment
– Surgery
– Radiotherapy
– A combination of the above treatments

When a patient’s cancer spreads too far (meaning it spreads to the lymph nodes near the pelvis) doctors typically advise against radiation therapy, since radiation in that area can cause damage to the bowel, which could then prove to be fatal. (Telegraph)

So What is IMRT?

IMRT stands for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. It’s a highly targeted form of radiation therapy that the Royal Marsden’s study claims can successfully eliminate cancer without causing fatal damage to surrounding organs.

For the treatment, your doctor uses a computer to plan the exact dose of radiation that will be aimed at the cancer. The computer then uses information about the size, shape, and location of the tumor to determine how much radiation is needed to kill the cancer cells.

The treatment uses the high amounts of radiation that are necessary to completely kill prostate cancer cells while still protecting the healthy cells that surround them. (UCLA) So IMRT can potentially be a safe option for patients whose cancer has spread to the pelvis.

Some newer radiation machines also have imaging scanners built into them to allow the doctor to take pictures of the prostate and make minor adjustments in aiming just before giving the radiation. This is called “image guided radiation therapy” or IGRT. It can help deliver radiation even more precisely, which could result in fewer side effects from the radiation. (American Cancer Society)

If you are considering going through IMRT, be sure to ask your physician about whether or not these additional options can be available to you.

Potential Side Effects of IMRT

Short term side effects of radiation can include:
– Skin damage (like a severe sunburn)
– Temporary diarrhea
– Rectal pain

Some possible long-term side effects can include:
– Painful or frequent urination
– Loose bowels
– Impotence

These problems could develop six months or more after the treatment ends and may be permanent. (Genomic Health) Again, be sure to consult your physician about the likelihood of these side effects and if there are options to help prevent them.

About the Study:

In the study mentioned above by the Institute of Cancer Research in London and the Royal Marsden, 447 men were treated with IMRT and monitored for five years. When the trail began in 2000, many of the patients were considered incurable.

The object of the study was to look at the long term effects of IMRT treatment as well as whether or not it could be used to treat those patients who were considered incurable before.

Study leader David Dearnaley, a professor of uro-oncology at the ICR and consultant clinical oncologist at the Royal Marsden said, “Our trial was one of the first of this revolutionary radiotherapy technique, which was pioneered by colleagues here at the ICR and The Royal Marsden.”

71% of the patients were alive and completely cancer free at the end of the five years. Just between eight and 16% of the patients in the trial suffered from issues with their bladder or bowel.

Ultimately, the trial found that IMRT can in fact be safely given to cancer cells that have spread to the pelvis to help stop the disease from spreading further.

Dearnaley calls the technique a “game-changer” for men with prostate cancer and says, “The work done here has already been carried forward into later-stage phase II and phase III trials. I’m excited to see this treatment become available to every man with prostate cancer who could benefit from it.”

The changes in use of IMRT have caused a “complete revolution” in the way it is delivered, with doses now delivered in only two minutes.

Professor Paul Workman, chief executive of the ICR says, “Radiotherapy is often seen as perhaps old-fashioned and crude compared with other cancer treatments — but nothing could be further from the truth.” With new advances in IMRT and the findings from this study, radiotherapy is now considered a highly precise and sophisticated treatment.

“It’s great to see this long-term evidence of the degree to which precision radiotherapy has transformed outcomes for men with prostate cancer,” Workman says.

How Big of An Impact Does This Study Have?

Prostate cancer affects tens of thousands of men in the U.S. each year, and those rates are rising. In 2017 there were about 161,360 new cases of prostate cancer and about 26,730 deaths from the disease.

Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer don’t die from it. When the disease is caught early, treatment is often successful. More than 2.9 million men in the U.S. who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives are still alive today.

Still, about 1 man in 7 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. And often, the cancer is not caught early enough.

Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind lung cancer and colorectal cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that 1 man in 39 will die of prostate cancer. (American Cancer Society)

In Conclusion:

Still, even with the new findings from this study it is important to consider your options and decide whether or not IMRT is the right treatment for you.

Dr. Matthew Hobbs, Deputy Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK said that the findings were promising, but also called for larger randomized trials to confirm definitive answers about the benefits of IMRT and its suitability for different cases. (Telegraph)

IMRT still may not be for every patient, but this new study does provide hope for a number of men who were once considered incurable.

Sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/26/prostate-cancer-treatment-could-cure-men-no-hope/

http://urology.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=523

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostate-cancer/treating/radiation-therapy.html

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostate-cancer/about/key-statistics.html

http://www.myprostatecancertreatment.org/en-US/Home/Prostate-Cancer-Treatment-Options/Radiation-For-Prostate-Cancer

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/858891/prostate-cancer-symptoms-treatment-uk

 

Colon Cancer Survival Rate

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Learning about colon cancer survival rate helps a cancer patient better understand how likely it is that their treatment will be successful. Survival rates do not tell the whole story and do not determine how long a particular cancer patient will live. By observing the 5-year colon cancer survival rates, you will be looking at data that was captured within a 5-year range. Moreover, treatments now may have a better outlook than these numbers portray, since treatments are improving. These statistics observe cases of when the cancer was first diagnosed and does not record instances that the cancer reoccurred. According to the American Cancer Society, “The 5-year relative survival rates are estimates – your outlook can vary based on a number of factors specific to you.” The following statistics derive from The National Institute’s SEER Database.

Colon Cancer Survival Rate

The 5-year relative colon cancer survival rate for stage 1 is 92%. The 5-year relative colon cancer survival rate for stage IIA is 87% and stage IIB is 63%. The 5-year relative colon cancer survival rate for stage IIIA is 89%, stage IIIB is 69%, and stage IIIC is 53%. The 5-year relative colon cancer survival rate for stage IV is 11%.

Colon Cancer Survival Rate

Remember, there are still options for people that are in progressed cancer stages. Every day new treatments are coming out and options are increasing. Oncologic Advisors connects patients to these new treatments, such as cutting-edge clinical trials.  Navigational services, like Oncologic Advisors, can help patients decide on which treatment is best for their cancer type and stage.  By connecting you to the top treatment centers and doctors, Oncologic Advisors helps ensure you are increasing your chances for survival. We are professional and fast in our research, providing you with the best treatment options within a week.

References

What Are the Survival Rates for Colorectal Cancer, by Stage? (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2017, from https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html