Breast cancer risk may rise with high hormone levels

Elevated levels of hormones increase breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, and as the number of different elevated hormones rises, so does the risk, a new study has found

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston examined levels of eight different sex and growth hormones in blood samples collected from nurses up to nine years before their health information was recorded the risk of breast cancer increased 16 percent with each elevated hormone level, according to the study published online Oct. 21 in the journal Breast Cancer Research.

The investigators found that the highest levels of circulating estrogens (estrone and estrogen), prolactin, and androgens (testosterone, androstenedione, DHEA, or DHEA-sulfate) were each associated with between a 50 and 200 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer.

A woman with elevated levels of one hormone had a 10 percent increased risk, while the risk was doubled for those with elevated levels of five or six hormones, and tripled for those with elevated levels of seven or eight hormones, the study authors explained in a journal news release.

And for women with estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer, all of these risks were slightly higher, the researchers pointed out.

"Elevated estrogens had the biggest effect on risk, especially for ER-positive cancer. However, androgens and prolactin also contribute to increasing risk of breast cancer. These hormones are known to stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells in the lab and, while androgens can be converted to estrogen in the body, these hormones have also been found to stimulate cancer cell growth in the absence of ER," Shelley Tworoger, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, explained in the news release.

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Steve Jobs' Pancreatic Cancer

Since he revealed in an email from a hospital bed in 2004 that he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer, Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health became a topic of intense interest. The picture that emerged from subsequent news reports was a patchwork of details that introduced many to the idea that one could live for years with a pancreatic tumor, unlike actor Patrick Swayze, opera legend Luciano Pavarotti and journalist Dith Pran.

"With what was reported to be his type of pancreatic cancer, which was a neuroendocrine tumor, seven years [of survival] is not uncommon," said Dr. Baburao Koneru, chief of the Division of Hepatobiliary Surgery at UMDNJ-The University Hospital in Newark, N.J. "It's quite different from the common form of pancreatic cancer."

"These tend to be slow-growing tumors," said Dr. Steven Libutti, director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care in New York.

While much of Jobs' journey through cancer was swathed in secrecy, other elements of his experience became very public – even if often speculative. Below is a timeline of media reports on Jobs' health:

August 2004: Jobs, 49, told Apple employees in an email that he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pancreas and had undergone a successful operation to remove it.



"I have some personal news that I need to share with you, and I wanted you to hear it directly from me," the email read. "I had a very rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which represents about 1 percent of the total cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed each year, and can be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed in time (mine was). I will not require any chemotherapy or radiation treatments.''

(In truth, statistics indicate that pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors account for 2,000 to 3,000 of an estimated 44,000 cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed each year.)

It was later revealed that Jobs had been diagnosed in 2003 with the cancer, but he chose not to reveal this to investors at the time.

August 2006: At Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference Jobs appeared thin and gaunt. Rumors of his death began to swirl around the Internet and in the media. An Apple spokesperson, however, said "Steve's health is robust."

June 2008: Again appearing gaunt at the annual WWDC, Jobs' health soon became a hot topic. Investors began to worry about the state of Apple, especially because its CEO had such a "hands on" approach. Although initially reps said Jobs was suffering from "a common bug," a New York Times reporter wrote that after speaking with Jobs, "his health issues have amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug,' [but] they weren't life-threatening and he doesn't have a recurrence of cancer."

At Apple's September 2008 Let's Rock event in San Francisco, Jobs used Mark Twain's oft-cited quote: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Later he brushed off journalists' questions and soon refused to answer any questions about his health.

January 2009: Explaining his absence at a Macworld event, Jobs issued a statement blaming his noticeable weight loss on a "hormone imbalance."

"My decision to have [Apple marketing chief] Phil Schiller deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed. Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."

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Homeopathy and Cancer

What does homeopathy specifically offer the cancer patient? There are several ways homeopathy can help cancer patients. First, there are specific remedies for various cancers. These remedies may be used whether a person has conventional treatment or not. A number of remedies can make conventional treatment easier for the cancer patient. Finally, homeopathic remedies can help with terminal pain and with the fear of dying.

Let us begin with helping a cancer patient through conventional cancer therapies. One remedy which may be used during cancer chemotherapy and radiation therapy is cadmium sulph. This remedy has a number of uses but one of its main uses is for severe projectile vomiting. Thus this remedy can be taken before any cancer treatment which causes vomiting. This remedy is also an antidote to radiation sickness. A 30C dose of this remedy before and after treatment will ease any possible vomiting.

Homeopathy was developed at a time when conventional medicine had little to offer the cancer patient. Later there was cancer surgery, but the surgery and the diagnostic testing underlying the surgery were not as sophisticated as that of today. Homeopathic physicians found that there were remedies for cancer. Although it may seem that the more advanced the cancer, the less likely homeopathy would be to help but this was not always true. The successful use of homeopathic remedies depends on being able to identify characteristic symptoms which lead to specific remedies. Sometimes the more severe the cancer the easier it is to find the symptoms and the appropriate remedy.

Cancer from a homeopathic perspective must be seen as a disease and as a disturbance of the vital force and that something must have disturbed the vital force to lead to cancer. Homeopaths would thus often search for a cause in trying to find the appropriate remedy. For example physical trauma to the breast leading to cancer, also points to a specific remedy. Another cause would be a miasm, an underlying predisposition to illness.

The problem is that for someone choosing surgery over homeopathic treatment is that the disease, the disturbance of the vital force, does not go away because the cancer is cut out. The cancer can recur elsewhere and can be more malignant when it does. This is not really explainable under current understanding of cancer. For example if a woman has had cancer in one breast, why should cancer then appear in the other breast, which unfortunately happens all too frequently. The academic model that cancer arises because of hits to DNA, the genes, which somehow results in cancer, means that cancer has a certain probability of affecting a certain tissue, such as the breast, but why once the cancer is removed surgically, that cancer should show up in the other breast has no obvious explanation if everything is random hits to the genes, to DNA.
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Drinking over recommended limit 'raises cancer risk'

Drinking more than a pint of beer a day can substantially increase the risk of some cancers, research suggests.

The Europe-wide study of 363,988 people reported in the British Medical Journal found one in 10 of all cancers in men and one in 33 in women were caused by past or current alcohol intake.

More than 18% of alcohol-related cancers in men and about 4% in women were linked to excessive drinking.

The Department of Health said it was taking action to reduce drinking.

Cancer charities say people should limit their drinking to lower the risk.

The study calculated that in 2008 current and past drinking habits were responsible for about 13,000 cancer cases in the UK, out of a total of 304,000 cases.

Previous research has shown a link between alcohol consumption and cancers of the oesophagus, liver, bowel and female breast.

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Health Buzz: Noninvasive Stool Test Could Detect Colon Cancer

A reliable, at-home colon cancer screening test that identifies DNA mutations in stool samples could soon supplement the dreaded colonoscopy. Exact Sciences Corp.'s noninvasive tool is far more predictive of colon cancer than the standard stool blood test because it screens for mutations associated with the presence of tumors. In a study of more than 1,000 patients, the test detected 85 percent of colon cancers, 64 percent of precancerous polyps, and 90 percent of healthy samples, researchers said Thursday at an American Association for Cancer Research conference. About 150,000 people are diagnosed with colon cancer each year, and 50,000 die from the disease annually. Often, that's because people shy away from invasive and somewhat risky colonoscopies until they have symptoms—indicating that the disease may already be advanced, The Wall Street Journal reports. "The noninvasive test we have developed is simple for patients, involves no diet or medication restriction, no unpleasant bowel preparation, and no lost work time, as it can be done from home," David Ahlquist, a Mayo Clinic researcher who helped develop the test, said at the conference. "Positive tests would be followed up with colonoscopy." The tool requires at least another year of development before it's ready for clinical use, researchers said.

Genetic variations behind increased prostate cancer risk identified

London, Sep 21 (ANI): Taking a major step in prostate cancer research, scientists have found a host of genetic variations that could tell which men are at the highest risk of contracting prostate cancer.

The results come from two studies today, which open up the prospect of new tests and treatments for the commonest male malignant disease.

The existing blood test is unreliable, often leading to unnecessary, painful and invasive investigations when there is no cancer, or sometimes incorrectly giving men the all-clear when they actually have the disease.

The two studies reveal nine new genetic variations that contribute to an increased risk of prostate cancer.

With these discoveries, the number of genetic variations associated with the disease has come to 20- the largest number of genetic risk factors uncovered for any cancer.

According to the researchers, the latest advances help to explain why the disease runs in families.

Ros Eeles, of the Institute of Cancer Research in London, who led the first of the two studies, said that the finding was based on the analysis of the genomes of 38,000 men from 21 studies and confirmed previous research published two years ago.

“These results will help us more accurately calculate the risk that a man could develop prostate cancer which will enable more targeted screening. Understanding more about these genes could also lead to the development of new treatments,” the Independent quoted him as saying.

The study has been published in Nature Genetics. (ANI)

source: http://www.duniyalive.com/?p=63528