Posts Tagged "Breast cancer"

Researchers found that women who had given birth might have a reduced risk of death from several common conditions than those who had not, according to a study released Friday by the Imperial College London (ICL).

The study, led by ICL researchers, was published in the journal BMC Medicine. It investigates the association between the so-called reproductive factors – such as having children and breastfeeding – and a woman’s risk of death.

Researchers analyzed data from 322,972 women across 10 countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Sweden, with an average age of 50.

Each woman was followed for an average of 12.9 years. During this period, there were 14,383 deaths overall, which included 5,938 deaths from cancer and 2,404 deaths from circulatory system diseases, according to the study.

The team compared a host of reproductive factors with risk of death from several common conditions, such as breast cancer, stroke and heart disease.

The researchers found that women who had given birth had a 20 per cent reduced risk of death than those who had not. It was also found that there was a reduced risk of death (eight per cent) in women who had breastfed compared to those who did not.

The risk of death from cancer was lower in those that had given birth compared to those that had not. Within this group, the risk was reduced even further in women that gave birth to two or three children in comparison to those who had one child.

Source: English News

Irregular sleeping patterns have been “unequivocally” shown to lead to cancer in tests on mice, a study suggests.

The report, in Current Biology, lends weight to concerns about the damaging impact of shift work on health.

The researchers said women with a family risk of breast cancer should never work shifts, but cautioned that further tests in people were needed.

The data also indicated the animals were 20% heavier despite eating the same amount of food.

Studies in people have often suggested a higher risk of diseases such as breast cancer in shift workers and flight attendants.

One argument is disrupting the body’s internal rhythm – or body clock – increases the risk of disease.

However, the link is uncertain because the type of person who works shifts may also be more likely to develop cancer due to factors such as social class, activity levels or the amount of vitamin D they get.

Mice prone to developing breast cancer had their body clock delayed by 12 hours every week for a year.

Normally they had tumors after 50 weeks – but with regular disruption to their sleeping patterns, the tumors appeared eight weeks earlier.

The report said: “This is the first study that unequivocally shows a link between chronic light-dark inversions and breast cancer development.”

Interpreting the consequences for humans is fraught with difficulty, but the researchers guesstimated the equivalent effect could be an extra 10kg (1st 8lb) of body weight or for at-risk women getting cancer about five years earlier.

“If you had a situation where a family is at risk for breast cancer, I would certainly advise those people not to work as a flight attendant or to do shift work,” one of the researchers, Gijsbetus van der Horst, from the Erasmus University Medical Centre, in the Netherlands, said.

Dr Michael Hastings, from the UK’s Medical Research Council, told the BBC: “I consider this study to give the definitive experimental proof, in mouse models, that circadian [body clock] disruption can accelerate the development of breast cancer.

“The general public health message coming out of my area of work is shift work, particularly rotational shift work is a stress and therefore it has consequences.

“There are things people should be looking out for – pay more attention to your body weight, pay more attention to inspecting breasts, and employers should offer more in-work health checks.

“If we’re going to do it, then let’s keep an eye on people and inform them.”

Source: BBC

For 2013, screening for these types of cancers either fell behind previous rates or showed no improvement.

Among adults in the age groups recommended for screening, about 1 in 5 women reported not being up-to-date with cervical cancer screening, about 1 in 4 women reported not being up-to-date with breast cancer screening, and about 2 in 5 adults reported not being up-to-date with colorectal cancer screening.

The report found that colorectal cancer testing was essentially unchanged in 2013 compared with 2010. Pap test use in women age 21-65 years was lower than 2000, and the number of mammography screenings was stagnant, showing very little change from previous years.

Researchers reviewed data from the National Health Interview Survey 2013, which is used to monitor progress toward Healthy People 2020 goals for cancer screening based on the most recent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines.

The screening data for 2013 show that 58.2 percent of adults age 50-75 years reported being screened for colorectal cancer; 72.6 percent of women age 50-74 had a mammogram; and 80.7 percent of women age 21-65 had a Pap test. All of these percentages are below the Healthy People 2020 targets.

Source: CDC

The Presidential Healthcare Center’s Executive Physicals include cancer screening and tumor marker tracking.

Postmenopausal women who in the past four years had undertaken regular physical activity equivalent to at least four hours of walking per week had a lower risk for invasive breast cancer compared with women who exercised less during those four years, according to data published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

But those benefits quickly disappear if regular physical activity stops.

“Twelve MET-h [metabolic equivalent task-hours] per week corresponds to walking four hours per week or cycling or engaging in other sports two hours per week and it is consistent with the World Cancer Research Fund recommendations of walking at least 30 minutes daily,” said Agnès Fournier, PhD, a researcher in the Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France. “So, our study shows that it is not necessary to engage in vigorous or very frequent activities; even walking 30 minutes per day is beneficial.”

Postmenopausal women who in the previous four years had undertaken 12 or more MET-h of physical activity each week had a 10 percent decreased risk of invasive breast cancer compared with women who were less active. Women who undertook this level of physical activity between five and nine years earlier but were less active in the four years prior to the final data collection did not have a decreased risk for invasive breast cancer.

“Physical activity is thought to decrease a woman’s risk for breast cancer after menopause,” said Fournier. “However, it was not clear how rapidly this association is observed after regular physical activity is begun or for how long it lasts after regular exercise stops.

“Our study answers these questions,” Fournier continued. “We found that recreational physical activity, even of modest intensity, seemed to have a rapid impact on breast cancer risk. However, the decreased breast cancer risk we found associated with physical activity was attenuated when activity stopped. As a result, postmenopausal women who exercise should be encouraged to continue and those who do not exercise should consider starting because their risk of breast cancer may decrease rapidly.”

Fournier and colleagues analyzed data obtained from biennial questionnaires completed by 59,308 postmenopausal women who were enrolled in E3N, the French component of the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. The mean duration of follow-up was 8.5 years, during which time, 2,155 of the women were diagnosed with a first primary invasive breast cancer.

The total amount of self-reported recreational physical activity was calculated in MET-h per week. The breast cancer risk-reducing effects of 12 or more MET-h per week of recreational physical activity were independent of body mass index, weight gain, waist circumference, and the level of activity from five to nine years earlier.

Source: American Association for Cancer Research

Adding 3-D mammography to conventional digital mammography substantially improved detection of invasive breast cancers and reduced the number of women called back for reexamination, according to the first large study of the new technology, released Tuesday.

Doctors in 13 academic and community health settings discovered 41 percent more of the most lethal cancers when women had both traditional digital mammograms and the 3-D screening known as “tomosynthesis.” The technology, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011, provides images that appear as slices of the breast, removing the effect of overlapping breast tissue that can obscure views of tumors.

Sarah Friedewald, co-medical director of the Caldwell Breast Center at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., who led the study, unequivocally endorsed the value of 3-D mammography over conventional imaging. “In my opinion,” she said of any woman about to be screened for breast cancer, “she should have the 3-D mammogram.”

The paper, published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reviewed 454,850 examinations from 13 sites across the country — 281,187 conducted with digital mammography and 173,663 that provided the traditional mammogram and tomosynthesis. The improved technology found 41 percent more invasive cancers (4.1 per thousand women screened versus 2.9 per thousand) and more cancers overall.

The addition of tomosynthesis also reduced the need to recall women for further testing, which decreases patients’ anxiety and holds down health-care costs. There was no difference in discovery of ductal carcinoma in situ, a condition that is the subject of heated debate concerning overdiagnosis and overtreatment of some breast cancers.

The 3-D screening subjects women to more radiation than traditional mammography, but the amount is still well within limits set by the FDA, Friedewald said. But it costs more, is not available everywhere and is not always covered by insurance, she said.

The new research did not examine how the patients screened actually fared — an area that Friedewald said needs more study.

Breast cancer kills 40,000 women annually, according to the American Cancer Society, although screening mammography has been important in reducing the mortality rate. But in recent years, women have been subjected to a confusing outpouring of information and research on who should be screened for breast cancer, when and how often.

In recent years, influential medical boards in the United States, Canada and Switzerland have revised their recommendations on screening mammography as debate continued over false-positive findings and over-diagnosis.

In an editorial that accompanied the 3-D mammography study Tuesday, two physicians who were not involved in the research suggested that the results will renew debate, this time over whether tomosynthesis should replace digital mammography. They called for more research.

The Presidential Healthcare Center offers 3D mammography at the co-located Sibley Breast Center.

Source: Washington Post

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is the second most common cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease. It accounts for nearly one of every four deaths in the U.S. each year. At the Presidential Healthcare Center, we offer many different types of cancer screenings–customized to your lifestyle and risk factors–in order to catch diseases in their earliest stages.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, other than skin cancer. Mammography can detect breast cancer at an early stage when treatment may be more effective and a cure is more likely.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. More than 130,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Regular colorectal screening can prevent colorectal cancer. Screening can detect precancerous polyps, which can be removed before they have the chance to turn into cancer. There are many types of screening tests available, although they have different testing frequencies.

An estimated 12,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year. When detected early, however, cervical cancer is preventable. Cervical cancer can be found early by having regular Pap tests. A Pap test can find changes in the cervix before cancer develops; it can also find cervical cancer early, in its most treatable stage.

At PHC, our preventive executive physicals provide the most extensive cancer screening available to ensure that our patients catch any abnormalities early, before they become major health issues. Each patient receives a custom-tailored program designed specifically for the individual’s needs, concerns, and risk factors, including family history. Celebrate Cancer Prevention Month by scheduling a preventive executive physical for yourself and your loved ones!

The globe is facing a “tidal wave” of cancer, and restrictions on alcohol and sugar need to be considered, say World Health Organization scientists. It predicts the number of cancer cases will reach 24 million a year by 2035, but half could be prevented. The WHO said there was now a “real need” to focus on cancer prevention by tackling smoking, obesity and drinking.

The World Cancer Research Fund said there was an “alarming” level of naivety about diet’s role in cancer. Fourteen million people a year are diagnosed with cancer, but that is predicted to increase to 19 million by 2025, 22 million by 2030 and 24 million by 2035.

The developing world will bear the brunt of the extra cases.