Breast Cancer Doctors

Prometheus launches Crohn’s Prognostic test

Prometheus launches Crohn’s Prognostic test
Prometheus Laboratories Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical and diagnostic company, today announced the commercial launch of its proprietary PROMETHEUS® Crohn’s Prognostic test. This novel and unique diagnostic represents a significant advance in the Prometheus Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) franchise of diagnostic and prognostic tests, and complements the market-leading PROMETHEUS® IBD Serology 7.

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Detection dedication: Breast cancer center honors founders and volunteers

Detection dedication: Breast cancer center honors founders and volunteers
FAIRBANKS — A table overflowing with scrapbooks filled with 36 years of newspaper clippings sparked memories, laughter and comments among attendees at the Breast Cancer Detection Center open house …

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Fox Chase Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Philadelphia Chromosome

Fox Chase Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Philadelphia Chromosome
In celebration of a seminal discovery in cancer biology, Fox Chase Cancer Center will host the Philadelphia Chromosome Symposium: Past, Present and Future, on September 28, 2010, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at The Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Â The event marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the first genetic abnormality associated with cancer, and the …

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Cancer Protection is About Making Smart Decisions

People taking action towards cancer protection by changing their diets and going to the doctor regularly have resulted in the latest statistics released by the American Cancer Society in January 2007 reporting that cancer deaths have gone down in the United States. Medical technology also offers state-of-the-art testing and screenings for various cancers, allowing patients to detect tumors in their earliest stages.

There are several ways you can protect yourself from cancer. One way is to maintain a healthy diet. Diets including plenty of fruits and vegetables allow a person to receive the necessary vitamins linked with cancer protection. It is also important to include healthy fats found in olive, canola and sunflower oils.

These are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to keep the heart healthy and prevent other deadly diseases. Limiting your intake of red meats is very important when it comes to a healthy diet. Instead, you should focus on including more lean proteins, such as chicken and fish.

Other ways to improve your diet are to eat hearty whole grains found in certain breads, pastas and rice dishes. Make sure to always avoid fried foods that are high in trans-fats.

Aside from a healthy diet, you can practice cancer prevention by taking certain supplements and vitamins. Vitamin E, selenium and lycopene have been connected with lowering a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer.

Fish oils have also been linked with preventing cancer of the prostate. There has even been research suggesting calcium supplements could help a person prevent colorectal cancer.

Going to the doctor is important even if you are trying to lower your risk of cancer. Doctors can perform certain screenings to help protect you from a life-threatening disease. Women are recommended to start having yearly mammograms sometime after age forty.

Younger women should have regular clinical breast exams performed by a physician or do breast exams at home to watch for abnormalities. Men and women should have a colonoscopy, beginning in their fifties, every ten years to watch for colorectal cancers. Men can protect themselves from prostate cancer by using certain chemoprevention drugs.

These are man-made drugs or vitamins used specifically to suppress or prevent cancer. PSA tests or digital rectal exams are other methods available to men who are at high risk for prostate cancer. Discuss all the treatments and screenings available with your doctor to determine what you should do based on your personal and family medical history.

Lifestyle is a major factor in your efforts at cancer protection. Smoking has been linked with several cancers, such as lung, prostate, bladder and breast cancer. It is imperative for smokers to quit this unhealthy habit because it will greatly reduce their risks of developing cancer.

Doctors recommend women watch their alcohol consumption as part of breast and cervical cancer control. Other ways to improve your lifestyle is to work plenty of physical activity into your daily schedule. Whether you join a gym, buy a treadmill or play outside with your children, exercising is an important factor in cancer protection.

Cancer protection could mean small changes or complete overhauls to daily routines, depending on your current lifestyle. Lowering your risk of cancer may include joining a gym or buying vitamins and dietary supplements.

It could mean you have to quit smoking or using other tobacco products. Whatever change you make to your current situation will put you closer to living a healthy and cancer-free life.

Cancer is a Preventable Disease of our Western Life-style

Cancer rates have been rising steadily since the 1940s. But this is mostly true in Western life-style societies. By understanding how this happened, we can all learn to protect ourselves better.

A Cancer Epidemic Started in 1940
Cancer rates have been climbing steadily since 1940. This is not due simply to the increase use of screening tests or the aging of our population: cancer has been rising in children and adolescents at a rate of 1% per year in the past 25 years. And cancers that have no screening test (lymphomas, pancreatic and testicular cancers for example) have been increasing as fast or faster than those that do (breast, colon, prostate).

The most common cancers in the west are rare in some other countries. In certain regions of rural China in the 1980s, for example, WHO researchers using the same screening tests we use in the west were not able to find any cases of breast cancers. They were told by local physicians “it’s a disease of rich women! You’ll find it in Hong Kong, but not here.”

When Chinese women immigrate to the US, their risk of breast cancer becomes that of American women within one or two generations. The same is true for Japanese men and prostate cancer. Asians are not protected by their genes, but by their life-style.

A Watershed in 1940: Five causes of a cancer epidemic
Five major aspects of our life-style have changed since 1940 and contribute to the progression of cancer:

1. The massive increase of sugar consumption
We went from 12 lbs of refined sugar per person per year in the 1800s to 154 lbs per person per year in 2000.

Cancer cells feed primarily on sugar. To detect where a tumor may be present in the body, we use PET scans that simply measure where radioactive sugar accumulates.

2. The change in the way we feed animals that feed us
Animals used to feed on grass and seeds rich in omega-3 fatty acids that slow the growth of cancer. Hence, meat, milk, cheese, butter, and eggs were all rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Now that animals are fed in feed-lots with corn and soy, omega-3s have practically disappeared from our common foods. Eggs my grandmother used to feed me on the farm I was raised on were a genuine “health food”, filled with the omega-3 DHA necessary for the growth of a child’s brain. Today’s supermarket eggs have practically no DHA and it has been replaced with the pro-inflammatory omega-6 arachidonic acid (AA).

A diet rich in omega-6 fatty acids is associated with a markedly increased risk of breast cancer. As omega-6s stimulate inflammation in the body, they are likely to feed the growth of many other types of cancer too.

Trans-fats, introduced widely in the 1960’s, are now present in almost all industrial foods (pizza, cookies, French fries etc.). They  are thought to increase the risk of breast cancer by a factor of 2. A Dutch government report of 2007 estimates that that the number of deaths due to trans-fats in that country exceeds that due to motor vehicle accidents.

3. The introduction of chemicals in all aspects of life
DDT was invented just before WWII. Many common herbicides and pesticides mimic the effects of estrogen hormones in the body. They can stimulate the growth of an existing tumor. In 2005 the CDC found 149 toxic chemicals in the blood and urine of American of all ages that were tested. In 2003 the University of Seattle tested pre-schoolers who eat conventional (non-organic) foods. The level of pesticide residue in their urine was high. For some of them, it exceeded by a factor of 4 the limit recommended by the Environment Protection Agency. Children eating organic diets (70% organic or better) had practically none.

4. The massive reduction in our physical activity
Do you know anyone whose grand-parents did not walk to school? How many children do you know today who walk more than 10 minutes to go to school? Something powerful has happened to our relation to physical activity. We are the most sedentary humans that ever existed.

The risk of a relapse from breast cancer is 50% less in women who walk 30 minutes six times a week. Physical activity is a highly effective protector from cancer that we have eliminated from our lives.

5. The disorganization of our social support networks
We Americans now move on average every 5 years. This means that we change neighbors, often friends, and get further and further away from our aunts and uncles, our parents, and our siblings.
In times of major stress, the most effective protection from adverse psychological and physical effects on our body comes from the strength of our intimate relationships. How strong are they today when we no longer live near each other? Twenty-five percent of us say that we have no one in whom we can confide.

One Australian study found that women with a major stressor in their life and no intimate support had 9.5 times more chances of developing breast cancer.

The encouraging part in this sad picture of an epidemic is that each one of us can start to reverse these societal changes in our own life. We can decide to nourish balance, to stimulate health, in us and around us. We can opt for a new way of life. And in doing so, we simultaneously help prevent cancer if we are cancer free, and strengthen our bodies if we already have it.

©2008 David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD

Top Models Step for a Cause

Top Models Step for a Cause
NEW YORK, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Nine West is hitting the pavement in New York City for Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion Week to raise funds and awareness for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, The Council of Fashion Designers of America’s (“CFDA”) charitable organization. Jones Apparel Group (NYSE: JNY) (“Jones”) is partnering with CFDA to create Nine West’s Runway Relief Program, an initiative aimed to …

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Meg Wolff: Anti-Cancer Cooking (RECIPES)

Meg Wolff: Anti-Cancer Cooking (RECIPES)
After being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, I adopted an exceptionally healthy way of eating to try to increase my chances of long-term survival. I’m so grateful that it worked.

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Highlands-Cashiers hospital hosts Medical Symposium Aug. 13

Highlands-Cashiers hospital hosts Medical Symposium Aug. 13
HIGHLANDS — Yearly, Highlands-Cashiers Hospital and its Board of Directors offers area physicians, active and retired, the opportunity to attend a continuing educational seminar by the way of medical symposiums.

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Dementia vs. Alzheimer’s: learning the differences

Dementia vs. Alzheimer’s: learning the differences
Dementia comes in many forms.

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Side by side on my piano, oh lord…

Image taken on 2008-09-27 13:59:48 by Juror8.