After cancer, now what

This information comes courtesy of www.blogofbra.com   I’m just passing on the information. -Kate

Free womens health screening May 30

Pen Bay Healthcare a community health care system dedicated to caring for the sick and injured and to improving the health and quality of life of the people of mid-coast Maine. They will arrange a Free women’s health screening on May 30, so if you’re living near them or willing to travel there, this is good chance to have free health screening.

The screening day will be held on the Penobscot Bay Medical Center campus and take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Women’s Health Building - located at 3 Glen Cove Drive in Rockport - and at the PBMC Radiology Department located in the hospital.

The screening will include a clinical breast exam and Pap test performed by Pen Bay Ob/Gyn medical staff followed by a mammogram at the hospital’s Radiology Department. All tests are free and will be completed on the day of the appointment.

“These free screenings are for women who are between the ages of 40 to 64,” said Linda Zeigler, RNC, Women’s Health Educator, PBMC. “There are also income guidelines but they are very generous, so that shouldn’t be a stumbling block for anyone. If you are a woman in this age group who does not have health insurance or has insurance with high deductibles or insurance that does not cover the costs of such tests, this program is for you. Usually this kind of screening takes two visits, the clinical exam being one appointment and the mammogram another but with this screening, it all gets done in about one hour.”

Pre-registration and more informations about this event can be read on their website www.penbayhealthcare.org

Caitlin Flanagan is an antifeminist American writer. She has written for The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly. Her book To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife was published by Little, Brown in April 2006 (ISBN 0316736872).

Flanagan is a breast cancer survivor.

While this is for prostate cancer it seems that the technology could be useful across the board. We’ll just have to wait and see.

A new imaging device, ei•Nav/Artemis^TM, now officially cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), offers urologists breakthrough technology that will significantly help in the fight against prostate cancer. Artemis, designed by Eigen, a Northern California-based company known for developing innovative, affordable medical imaging solutions, was introduced at the American Urological Association’s (AUA) annual meeting May 17 - 22 in Orlando, FL.

“Since prostate cancer strikes a staggering one in six men, it is startling to me that until now blind biopsies have been the standard of care once cancer of the prostate is suspected,” said Eigen CEO Michael Castorino. “Artemis is intended to give the nation’s nearly 10,000 urologists the technology to navigate to a desired location for prostate biopsy and record this information for future reference, treatment planning and monitoring.”

More: www.eigen.com

There is an article about this in the New York Times as well. I am REALLY concerned about the idea of women being told that it is “probably” not cancer and to come back in 6 months for another scan. I’m not an oncologist or a radiologist, just a woman who had breast cancer. I’m concerned that insurance companies are going to get their hands on this kind of data and start making changes to coverage. Remember, you are your best advocate!

Radiologists can, with confidence, recommend a six-month follow-up diagnostic mammogram rather than an immediate biopsy for patients with “probably benign” breast lesions, a new study emphasizes.

The study found that six-month short-interval follow-up examinations had an 83% sensitivity
more: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/106918.php

The study appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology

Here’s some news for women who would like to keep their hair

Women with breast cancer are increasingly being spared the misery and cost of chemotherapy, thanks to a test that characterizes each tumor by its genetic thumbprint.

Two new studies show that the test, known as Oncotype DX, significantly cut the number of women who got chemo.

http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20080502/fewer-breast-cancer-patients-get-chemo

By Charlene Laino
WebMD Medical News

Barbara Allen is a Republican Kansas State Senator from the 8th District. She was first elected to the Kansas House in 1988 and then to the Kansas Senate in 2000. In March of 2005, Allen was informed that she had breast cancer. Unable to be treated in Kansas, Allen sought treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. After, twelve rounds of chemotherapy, thirty-three radiation treatments, and surgery, doctors said that they can’t detect cancer in Allen.

Mike Partain, son and grandson of Marine Corps veterans, grew up steeped in traditional American values - a rock-solid Reagan Republican whose life, even before birth, began among the few, the proud, at Camp LeJeune, N.C.

But for the past year, the 40-year-old Tallahassee insurance claims adjuster’s faith in his government has been shaken to its core.

He’d always assumed that Uncle Sam, first and foremost, had the health and welfare of U.S. citizens at the top of his priority list - especially if they’d worn the uniform.

Now he’s much less sure.

http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/COLUMNIST01/803280345/1006/OPINION

If you have not yet read the rest of this article please do so. The above is an opinion piece but Mike is having difficulty getting media attention.  This small piece has now lead to 17 families connecting with each other and being able to support and share each others stories.  Before I had breast cancer I didn’t fully appreciate the power that sharing stories really can have.  His site is The few, the proud, the forgotten and is on my resource list.  It’s very easy for us to say “Thank you for your service” let’s not make it ring hollow.

This one is a bit technical but important nonetheless. The idea of being able to see in real time how chemotherapy is effecting the cancer cells could change treatment patterns and effectiveness for millions.

Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a possible new pathway for anti-tumor drugs to kill cancer cells and proposed how to improve the design of tiny drug-delivery particles for use in “nanomedicine.”

Written by - Emil Venere

www.perdue.edu

Synthetic food dyes - long blamed for causing hyperactivity in children - may have a good side: some of them may protect against cancer.

Gayle Orner at Oregon State University in Corvallis added the carcinogens dibenzopyrene (DBP) or aflatoxin to the feed of trout for one month, with or without the food dyes Red 40 - one of six recently linked to hyperactivity in children - or Blue 2.

Nine months later, trout that had been fed either of the dyes in combination with aflatoxin had 50 per cent fewer liver tumours, compared with those that had been exposed to aflatoxin alone. Trout that had been fed DBP in combination with Red 40 had a 50 per cent lower incidence of stomach cancer and a 40 per cent lower incidence of liver cancer.

“The public perception is that food dyes are bad, but some of them may have good points as well,” says Orner, who presented her results at the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego, California, last week.    While the amounts of dye eaten by the fish could be matched by eating a lot of sweets and soft drinks, Orner advises against this strategy. Instead, she says the next step is to understand the mechanism by which these food dyes exert their anti-cancer effect.

From www.New Scientist.com

This came from Ideal bite. They have a great daily bite e-mail with information, ideas and links.

Get a peek at the type of plastic in your baby’s bottle?

The Bite
It’s an eyeful you’d probably rather avoid. Unfortch, many baby and adult water bottles are made from plastic that contains the toxin bisphenol A (BPA). Opt for BPA-free bottles, and hide your eyes from the rest.

The Benefits

• Not nipping away at good health. A 2007 study links BPA to enlarged male breasts, earlier puberty in girls, and cancer.
• Only the breast for Ma Nature. The fewer dangerous chems we buy, the fewer will end up in nature.

Personally Speaking
A couple of us were breastfed until we were four, which may seem kinda weird, but at least it means our moms avoided plastic bottles (and bottles in general).

Wanna Try?

• Avoid clear, hard plastic bottles marked with a 7 or PC (polycarbonate).
• BornFree Bottles - each bottle holds 9 ounces of the white stuff. Also: a glass version ($27/3).
• Babylife Wee-go Bottle - another 9-ouncer that comes in a protective, dishwasher-safe silicone sheath to avoid breakage ($18).
• Camelbak Better Bottle - 25-ounce bottle made from a new, clear, safer plastic called Tritan; in 5 colors ($9).

This tip submitted by Emily Busenitz and Deb Preston.