Posts Tagged ‘texas’

Free Breast Cancer ribbon tattoos in Dallas Texas

All information at tattootattootattoo.com

Free Breast Cancer ribbon tattoos

Kayden DiGiovannni former Certified Nursing Assistant and Home Healthcare Provider has been a tattoo artist for the past 9 years.
He is the owner of DallasTattoo.net and works at the Skin Art Gallery in Addison Texas.

Definition of breast cancer: Cancer that forms in tissues of the breast, usually the ducts (tubes that carry milk to the nipple) and lobules (glands that make milk). It occurs in both men and women, although male breast cancer is rare.

Estimated new cases and deaths from breast cancer in the United States in 2010:

New cases: 207,090 (female); 1,970 (male)
Deaths: 39,840 (female); 390 (male)

The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) organization is a partnership of national public service organizations, professional medical associations, and government agencies working together to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to screening services.

While October is recognized as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the www.NBCAM.org Web site is a year-round resource for breast cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and the general public. We encourage you to visit our site in October and regularly throughout the year as we add updated breast cancer information and resources.

“Cut Them Off,” Say Some. Preventative Mastectomies Offered To Texas Women Genetically Prone to Brea

Deciphering a blessing from a curse isn’t always as clear-cut as it may seem. At least that’s true for women who have been told that they carry one of the most potentially deadly genetic mutations — one of the BRCA, or breast cancer genes, associated with an unusually high risk of the disease. While the discovery of the BRCAs are promising — eventually leading, hopefully, to prevention as medical science advances — deciding what to do after finding out one has tested positive can be just as difficult as wondering.

“It’s taking over my mind,” said Deborah Linder, 33, a medical resident at Northwestern University who tested positive.*

For many with high family incidences of breast cancer, the tendency was simply known as “the family curse.” Now, at least “the curse” has a name scientists can validate with a term more specific than “family history.” But treatment options are varied, and each comes with its own risks.

The majority of those who receive news that they carry the gene opt to have both ovaries removed, which reduces risks of both breast cancer and the often-associated ovarian cancer. About a third have a preventative mastectomy performed, which decreases the likelihood of the disease by ninety percent, and a few prefer to take prophylactic anti-cancer drugs. Still others opt for herbs and natural means of prevention, and even more decide vigilant surveillance is all that’s necessary, which can include frequent MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), mammograms, and sonograms. Yet mammograms and ultrasounds can miss half of cancers in young women, who tend to have denser breasts.

The presence of BRCA1 raises the risk of developing breast cancer anywhere from sixty to ninety percent. An estimated 250,000 American women carry it, though only 30,000 have actually been tested. According to the American Cancer Society, twenty-six percent of new cancer diagnoses are of the breast, and in Texas alone, 2,480 women are expected to die of it this year. Many more will be diagnosed.. In the Lone Star state, breast cancer is the third leading cancer diagnosis, topped only by lung and colon/rectal. Other risk factors, such as obesity, also run high in Texas. Twenty-seven percent of state residents are obese, and new studies on children in Dallas, Austin, and Houston reveal a trend that may still further increase that number.

Such statistics, combined with an overwhelming lack of health coverage — twenty-five percent of the state as a whole, and twenty-seven percent of its young adults are living without health insurance — makes facing the issue that much harder for Texan women.

The majority of breast cancer cases, in fact, are not associated with the presence of a BRCA gene. Only five to ten percent are. But still is the possibility of personal risk being almost twice that of non-carriers worth finding out? Is reducing the chance of getting the disease worth losing the opportunity to have children or breastfeed, which, in itself, would decrease the cancers’ likelihoods?

“I know the joy that my girls have brought to me,” Deborah’s mother, a breast cancer survivor, said. “If Deb misses it, she won’t know what she missed. But having experienced it, I would never have wanted to miss it.” Yet, she, too was torn. “Have the surgery as soon as possible,” she told her daughter one day after finding out others in her family were diagnosed at the same age as Deborah.*

The question becomes even more complex when one considers that new treatment options may be just around the corner. While the chances of surviving breast cancer are good if detected early, ovarian cancer, which attacks fifty percent of BRCA1 carriers, is deadly seventy-five percent of the time. A new study, published this month in Clinical Cancer Research, revealed that a protease inhibitor used to treat HIV patients may also be useful in treating drug-resistant cancers, including breast cancer. Marketed under the brand name Viracept, nelfinavir proved to have the most powerful effect on tumor growth of six protease inhibitors in laboratory experiments. The drug is currently in Phase 1 of clinical trials for cancer treatment.

Would young women, then, who have been told they carry the genetic mutation, be wise to wait for better detection and treatment methods? It would seem that the science of detecting the presence of the disease is not nearly as advanced as the science of predicting its possibility. It’s impossible to know so early on; only more time (years more) will yield the statistics necessary to determine the success rates for different prophylactic options.

If you ask Dr. Patrick I. Borgen, the director of the Brooklyn Breast Cancer Project at the Maimonides Cancer Center, who has performed several preventative mastectomies, he might advise to say goodbye to a part of the body in exchange for saving a life. “Maybe [BRCA carriers'] grandchildren will have better options, but right now a draconian operation [a preventative mastectomy] is the best thing we can do.

*As quoted in New York Times in “Cancer Free at 33, But Weighing a Mastectomy” on September 16, 2007.

Asians In Texas May Be Seven Times More Likely to Develop Cancer

Asian-Americans may be seven times as likely to be diagnosed with certain cancers, according to the American Cancer Society and Melissa McCracken, first author of a study focusing on cancer rates in the U.S.’s Asian population, released earlier this week in CA, a Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

While Asian-Americans have a lower overall incidence rate of cancer than other ethnic populations in the U.S., the disease is still a main cause of death for the group and accounts for more fatalities than heart disease. Stomach and liver cancers, for instance, are much more likely to occur in the United States’ Asian population.

It’s a serious public health issue for the country, with so many immigrants arriving every year, many of whom lack health insurance and the communication skills to effectively seek treatment, and some of whom carry bacteria and viruses — which can cause cancers — uncommon in the U.S. While still a small minority in Texas, at just under 4%, or approximately 850,000, the Asian-American population in the state is growing, particularly in cities like Dallas and Houston.

McCracken’s study was based on cases reported in California from 2000 to 2004, and focuses on five ethnic groups — Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese — all broken down into subgroups and analyzed individually, as well as in comparison to the larger population of Asians living in the U.S. The study concluded that Asian-Americans have a recognizable pattern of cancers, that newer immigrants tend to display patterns more closely aligned with their native countries, and that the longer an individual is in the U.S., the more likely he or she is to develop cancers more common here, like colorectal and breast cancers.

Koreans are five to seven times as likely to develop stomach cancer as non-Hispanic whites, and Vietnamese men are seven times more likely to be diagnosed and die from liver cancer. Filipino women have the highest death rate from breast cancer among all Asian women, and are diagnosed almost as often as Caucasians. Filipino men have the highest rate of prostate cancer among Asian men, and are on par with Filipino women’s breast cancer incidence rate, about 125 per 100,000. Vietnamese and Korean women show the highest rates of cervical cancer, and the lowest rates of Pap test screenings. Japanese-Americans’ rates of colorectal, stomach, prostate, and breast cancers are all increasing.

Approximately 80% of all liver cancers occur in developing countries, mostly due to untreated bacterial or viral infections. Fifty-five percent of those cases are in China alone. The stunning rates of stomach and liver cancers in the U.S.’s Vietnamese and Korean populations can be traced, in part, back to Asia, where hepatitis B is endemic. Chronic infections from the disease are a major cause of liver cancer there, and recent immigrants show similar rates as their home countries. Foods high in nitrates and nitrites, common in Korean cuisine, are also thought to be at fault.

McCracken, an epidemiologist with the Society, is warning clinicians and the public to be more aware of the problem, especially as circumstances that bring about the higher death rates associated with these cancers could be avoided. Proper screening procedures, increasing access to health insurance and health care, sensitivity to immigration issues — including the possibility of bacterial or viral infections uncommon in the U.S. — as well as making efforts to cut through barriers associated with language and cultural differences, would all be helpful.

“The group (the Asian-American population) is not homogenous. Clinicians need to be aware of that and to really extend their scope of attention to cancer due to infectious agents, not just typical chronic conditions.”

Adopting healthier habits from Asian countries, as opposed to Asians picking up unhealthy American habits, would also appear to lower cancer incidence rates for all ethnic groups. Risks of many cancers increase with obesity, inactivity, high alcohol intake, and diets high in fat and low in whole grains, fruits and vegetables. As immigrants adapt to their surroundings, their habits, naturally, often slowly become more like their host country’s. As Asian-Americans adopt more American habits, then, certain cancer rates slowly increase.

Genetics, of course, may also play a role. Dr. Regina Santella, a professor of environmental health science at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, points to lung cancer’s link with a certain gene that slightly increases the chance of smokers developing lung cancer — a serious problem in Texas. Not all smokers develop the disease, however, even if conditions are similar, or worse, to those who smoke. But exposure levels to toxins, including cigarette smoke, are also factors not to be ignored, she warns.

With the overwhelming number of statistics available on an overwhelming number of health issues, it’s difficult not to skim the morning paper and then promptly exchange it for that delicious donut, sitting, of course, next to a highly-caffeinated cup of sugary coffee. “Oh, everything causes cancer anyway,” we grumble, and go about our day. But generalized information is perhaps just as important as specifics, perhaps more so to the mass population. The basic truth is that McCracken’s study reveals one very important thing many others have — that incidences of disease, including deadly cancers, increase dramatically when we don’t take care of ourselves. Poor eating and exercise habits, as well as exposure to certain toxins, were the main culprits — not life in general. So read the health section, put one less teaspoon of sugar in that cup of joe and, for goodness’ sake, eat some fresh fruit.

Being aware of your genetic risks and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are important parts of watching out for your health. How you take care of yourself will certainly affect you as you age, and eventually your wallet, as well.

Texas Raises Organ Donor Registry; D.C. Not Ready For Medical Marijuana Sales; L.A. Health Department Facing Major …

Texas Raises Organ Donor Registry; D.C. Not Ready For Medical Marijuana Sales; L.A. Health Department Facing Major …
The Houston Chronicle: “Though Texas has the nation’s lowest percentage of registered organ and tissue donors, several recent initiatives have more than doubled the state’s donor rolls this year. The number enrolled in the Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry has ballooned since Jan. 1, when state law required Department of Public Safety clerks to ask all driver’s license and ID card …

Read more on Medical News Today

North Texas Doctors Trying Scalpel Alternative

North Texas Doctors Trying Scalpel Alternative
Forget the scalpel: A new tool that requires a smaller incision, causes less pain and dramatically decreases recovery time is being embraced by North Texas doctors.

Read more on CBS 11 Dallas – Fort Worth