“Women With Breast Cancer Have Low Vitamin D Levels - Science Daily” plus 4 more

Women With Breast Cancer Have Low Vitamin D Levels - Science Daily
Lab on a chip’ could ease hormone monitoring - sign on sandiego.com
QUICK TAKES - Los Angeles Times
Researchers develop new lab-on-a-chip technique - PhysOrg
Sisters speak out about their fight against breast cancer - Herald-Bulletin

Women With Breast Cancer Have Low Vitamin D Levels - Science Daily

Posted: 10 Oct 2009 07:57 AM PDT

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2009) — Women with breast cancer should be given high doses of vitamin D because a majority of them are likely to have low levels of vitamin D, which could contribute to decreased bone mass and greater risk of fractures, according to scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

In a study of 166 women undergoing treatment for breast cancer, nearly 70 percent had low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to a study being presented Thursday, Oct. 8, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Breast Cancer Symposium in San Francisco. The analysis showed women with late-stage disease and non-Caucasian women had even lower levels.

"Vitamin D is essential to maintaining bone health, and women with breast cancer have accelerated bone loss due to the nature of hormone therapy and chemotherapy. It's important for women and their doctors to work together to boost their vitamin D intake," said Luke Peppone, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Radiation Oncology, at Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. He is a member of the National Cancer Institute's Community Clinical Oncology Program research base in Rochester.

Scientists funded by the NCI analyzed vitamin D levels in each woman, and the average level was 27 nanograms per milliliter; more than two-thirds of the women had vitamin deficiency. Weekly supplementation with high doses of vitamin D -- 50,000 international units or more -- improved the levels, according to Peppone's study.

The U.S. Institute of Medicine suggests that blood levels nearing 32 nanograms per milliliter are adequate.

This problem is not unexpected, Peppone said, because previous studies have shown that nearly half of all men and women are deficient in the nutrient, with vitamin D levels below 32 nanograms per milliliter. Vitamin D, obtained from milk, fortified cereals and exposure to sunlight, is well known to play an essential role in cell growth, in boosting the body's immune system and in strengthening bones.

Symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency include muscle pain, weak bones/fractures, low energy and fatigue, lowered immunity, symptoms of depression and mood swings, and sleep irregularities, many of which are common for women undergoing breast cancer treatment.

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Lab on a chip’ could ease hormone monitoring - sign on sandiego.com

Posted: 08 Oct 2009 02:02 AM PDT

2:00 a.m. October 8, 2009

WASHINGTON — Estrogen fuels breast cancer, yet doctors can't measure how much of the hormone is in a woman's breast without cutting into it. A Canadian invention might change that: a "lab on a chip" that can do the work quickly with just the poke of a small needle.

Several years of study are needed before the experimental device could reach doctors' offices, but the research published yesterday opens the tantalizing possibility of easy, routine monitoring of various hormones. Doctors could use it to see if breast-cancer therapy is working, tell who's at high risk, or for other problems such as infertility — maybe even prostate cancer.

"It opens up an avenue of investigation that without tools like this, you couldn't explore," said Dr. Kelly Marcom, breast oncology chief at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who wasn't involved with the invention.

The University of Toronto researchers used a powerful new technology to measure tiny droplets of estrogen from samples at least 1,000 times smaller than today's testing requires. Called digital microfluidics, it uses electricity to separate and purify droplets of the hormone from a mix of other cells — all on the surface of a chip no bigger than a credit card. The research was published in a new journal, Science Translational Medicine.

"Droplets essentially can be made to dance across the surface," said University of Toronto engineer Aaron Wheeler, co-inventor of the device.

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QUICK TAKES - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 09 Oct 2009 11:57 PM PDT

Researchers develop new lab-on-a-chip technique - PhysOrg

Posted: 07 Oct 2009 11:35 AM PDT

Researchers develop new lab-on-a-chip technique

October 7th, 2009

Scientists at the University of Toronto have developed a new "lab-on-a-chip" technique that analyses tiny samples of blood and breast tissue to identify women at risk of breast cancer much more quickly than ever before.

"The concentration of the hormone estrogen and its metabolites the products of metabolized estrogen in breast tissue are known to be significantly increased in breast cancer patients compared to healthy women, and is therefore believed to increase the risk of breast cancer. Despite this, breast estrogen levels in women at risk are not routinely measured because conventional techniques require large tissue samples obtained through invasive biopsies," says Dr. Noha Mousa, a Canadian Institute of Health Research fellow at Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and a clinical fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto.

In response to this challenge, an interdisciplinary group of U of T scientists have used a new technology called digital microfluidics where instead of moving electrons across tiny wires, minute droplets of fluid are manipulated electrically on the surface of a microchip. Because these devices can be used to integrate multiple different laboratory functions, this type of technology is sometimes called a "lab-on-a-chip."

"We applied this technique for the first time to analyze hormones in tiny clinical samples we looked at blood, serum and breast cancer tissue," says Aaron Wheeler, director of the Wheeler Microfludics lab in the Department of Chemistry. "We developed methods to move droplets of several different kinds of reagents a substance consumed during a chemical reaction to extract hormones and purify them all on a device that can fit into the palm of a hand."

"The new methods we've developed may someday facilitate routine screening of clinical samples for analysis of hormones. This may be useful in many applications, including screening for risk of developing breast cancer, especially in high-risk populations, and monitoring the response to antiestrogen breast cancer therapies such as aromatase inhibitors. It could also help in monitoring hormone levels in infertility treatments and in detecting illegal doping in athletes," added Wheeler.

The work will be the cover story in the inaugural issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Source: University of Toronto (news : web)

Sisters speak out about their fight against breast cancer - Herald-Bulletin

Posted: 10 Oct 2009 12:29 PM PDT

Published October 10, 2009 03:27 pm - There's nothing quite like having a sister.
But sometimes sisters share things that they would gladly give their lives to spare one another.
Things like breast cancer.

Sisters speak out about their fight against breast cancer

By Theresa Timmons, For The Herald Bulletin

There's nothing quite like having a sister.

Sisters share everything. DNA. The curling iron and hot rollers. A favorite sweater. Secrets. Memories. That perfect lipstick. An angry word or insult, on occasion. And love, unfailingly.

But sometimes sisters share things that they would gladly give their lives to spare one another.

Things like breast cancer.

And in this particular family of five sisters, four of them — Jo, Esther, Marty and Jan — have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. Two of the sisters, Jo Donaldson and Esther Dodge, are ready to talk about it.

Esther explained why being open about their breast cancer was important to her: "I thought if I could just help one person by talking about it, it would all be worth it."

Jo was diagnosed first, 11 years ago. She is the oldest sister — straightforward, serious and intense. She clearly remembers the day her doctor found the lump while performing her yearly screening exam.

"Really my gynecologist, Sherry Shrock, found it and sent me to have the mammogram. It was a surprise you know, when she found that. I didn't realize it was there."

Jo always had regular mammograms beginning in her 40s, as suggested by her doctor. The lump had developed since the previous year. It was cancer.

"Just hearing the word cancer is a shock. You just begin to think of a lot of things … if you're gonna make it, how bad it is."

A doctor staged the cancer and recommended a mastectomy. Jo was terribly upset and spoke with the oncologist.

"She was very sweet …it's a big deal for a woman to have that done, to have a breast removed. She told me how serious it could be if I didn't go ahead with it."

Still, Jo struggled with the fear. She had lost her husband a few years earlier and felt very alone. "My baby was gone. I didn't have him there to share all this."

But she recalls the day of the surgery and the events that gave her hope.

"The most wonderful thing was the doctor went off to the side and prayed for my surgery. I saw him do it. That gave me a lot of hope that things would be alright. I also have a friend that is like a mother to me, and before I went in the operating room, they slid those double doors open and there she stood. I felt at ease."

Breast Cancer

Saturday, October 10, 2009