plus 3, Study shows soy is not only safe for breast cancer survivors, it may ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer

Study shows soy is not only safe for breast cancer survivors, it may ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer
PINC trial launched to test new treatment for pre-invasive breast ... - PhysOrg
NIH award supports doctoral student's research on how couples cope ... - the University of Delaware
Kingwood residents join in fight to end breast cancer - Houston Community Newspapers

Study shows soy is not only safe for breast cancer survivors, it may ... - Cleveland Plain Dealer

Posted: 02 Mar 2010 09:15 AM PST

By Kaye Spector, The Plain Dealer

March 02, 2010, 12:15PM

Related story: Soy growing as nutritional choice for everyone's table Despite soy's healthy profile, many women who have had breast cancer are reluctant to eat soy foods. And many cancer doctors caution their patients against doing so.

The concern stems from substances in soy called isoflavones, which behave like weak estrogen in the body. Estrogen, a hormone that controls the menstrual cycle, has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer in women.

Here's how: Estrogen stimulates cells to divide. Cancer arises from DNA mutations in cells -- errors that occasionally happen during cell division. If one of these spontaneous mutations occurs in a gene that controls cell growth and division, it could lead to the development of cancer.

Another worry is the interaction between isoflavones and tamoxifen, a breast cancer drug that blocks estrogen from cells.

But a study published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association may set those fears aside.

The study, by researchers at Vanderbilt University, says soy foods are safe -- and possibly beneficial -- for breast cancer survivors. They looked at 5,042 women in China who were breast cancer survivors and divided them into four groups based on how much soy they ate. Women who ate low amounts of soy consumed an average of about a half-cup of soy milk a day, while the high-soy-consumption group had about three cups a day.

After four years, 10.3 percent of those who consumed the least soy died, compared with 7.4 percent of those who had the most, leading researchers to theorize that soy did not increase breast cancer occurrence and may have had some protective effect.

Breast cancer specialist Dr. Paula Silverman often gets questions from her patients about whether it's safe to eat soy. Her answer: Go ahead and enjoy.

"I don't think there was good data about that, ever," says Silverman, medical director of the Breast Cancer Program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. "I've always felt that soy was probably safe."

Some years ago, Silverman heard a lecture by a physician who made a compelling argument that plant estrogens and human estrogens are not the same.

Silverman thinks the weak estrogens in soy may act more like tamoxifen than like human estrogen.

"The bottom line is dietary soy is safe for breast cancer survivors," Silverman says.

The National Institutes of Health says it remains unclear what role dietary soy or soy isoflavone might play in cancer risk. While several large population studies have reported that higher soy intake is associated with a decreased risk of developing various types of cancers, including breast, prostate and colon cancer, other research suggests soy does not have this effect.

Mary Beth Kavanagh, a dietitian and nutrition instructor at Case Western Reserve University, says the Vanderbilt study is "really compelling evidence."

She cautions, however, that the women in the study ate lots of soy over a lifetime, as well as fish and vegetables.

She used to tell her clients not to eat soy. Now she says it might not hurt.

"Adding some soy could be beneficial," Kavanagh says. "But you don't want to make a major lifestyle change based on one study."

Amy LeJeune, a cancer dietitian at University Hospitals' Ireland Cancer Center, suspects other factors may be at work in the survival rates of the Vanderbilt study.

"We can't rule out genetics as being somewhat of a factor as well," she says. "I do think it plays a role."

Silverman agrees. She says soy alone is not going to prevent a cancer recurrence. There are probably many variables, she says, including exercise, diet and tobacco use.

"Surviving breast cancer is a complex process," Silverman says. "The interactions between all these things are important and unknown."

Contact Kaye Spector: kspector@plaind.com or 216-999-3904.

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PINC trial launched to test new treatment for pre-invasive breast ... - PhysOrg

Posted: 02 Mar 2010 10:05 AM PST

In January, the IBCI and CAPMM launched the PINC Trial, short for Preventing Invasive Breast Neoplasia with Chloroquine. This three-year clinical trial will test the effectiveness of the anti-malarial drug chloroquine in treating 90 women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a type of breast cancer in which the cancer cells start in the milk ducts but have not yet become invasive and spread in the breast. Once the cancer cells start to spread in the breast and throughout the body, the condition is considered invasive and can often be fatal.

With an estimated 254,650 patients diagnosed in 2009 alone, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women according to statistics by the American Cancer Society. Approximately one quarter of those patients will have DCIS. Many more women are being diagnosed with DCIS, non-invasive breast cancer, with the routine use of screening mammography.

According to Kirsten Edmiston, MD, the trial's principal investigator and medical director of cancer services at Inova Health System, the trial is designed to prevent breast cancer cells from becoming deadly by killing pre-invasive cancer cells using a novel therapy with chloroquine, which has been used to treat malaria in the past.

"We have identified a particular cellular process called autophagy that is very involved in the survival of DCIS. In pre-clinical work, our team found that if we block autophagy in DCIS cells with chloroquine, that it kills the cells so that they're not able to become invasive," says Edmiston. "What this trial is proposing is to treat DCIS patients with chloroquine, an autophagy blocker before they receive standard of care surgery to treat their DCIS disease. We believe that the treatment will kill the DCIS cells before they become invasive and shrink the size of the DCIS. We may be able to prevent someone from needing a mastectomy and offer them breast conserving surgery."

Once patients have consented and enrolled, the size of their breast tumor will be measured through a non-invasive imaging technique called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Tissue samples will be taken from patients by Inova's doctors and transported to CAPMM for analysis. The PINC trial will combine chloroquine with Tamoxifen depending on the patient's tumor profile. After treatment, the MRI will be repeated to see if the tumor has shrunk and the patient will then proceed with surgery and follow up therapy.

What made the researchers think to use a malaria drug to treat breast cancer? According to Ginny Espina, a CAPMM research assistant professor, it works by starving the cancerous cells.

"Pre-cancerous cells have adapted to survive inside the milk duct without a blood supply and with very few nutrients. They overcome starvation through a process called autophagy. It's a way for a cell to make its own food and store it in a 'cookie jar.' In the breast ducts, the DCIS cells use these 'cookies' to survive and potentially spread. Simply put, chloroquine goes into the cell's 'cookie jars' and prevents the cells from using that food so that they eventually die from starvation," says Espina.

Of note, researchers are also using chloroquine in patients with unique types of brain tumors.

The treatment of DCIS is controversial because most DCIS lesions remain dormant and do not become invasive. Physicians do not want to over treat DCIS and cause unnecessary side effects if the DCIS does not become aggressive. However, chloroquine is a relatively safe treatment that does not have the severe side effects of typical chemotherapy.

"I think the most exciting thing is that we are able to offer women a new clinical trial using a well tolerated therapy in a new way to help prevent the development of invasive breast cancer and hopefully, ultimately, it will keep them from needing any additional treatment or surgery," says Edmiston. "We look forward to a future where all breast cancer can be prevented or destroyed."

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NIH award supports doctoral student's research on how couples cope ... - the University of Delaware

Posted: 02 Mar 2010 11:38 AM PST

2:29 p.m., March 2, 2010----Amber J. Belcher, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Delaware, has won the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The fellowship will support Belcher's research on how couples cope with breast cancer.

Breast cancer is second only to skin cancer as the most common cancer among women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, every year nearly 200,000 women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the United States and over 40,000 die from the disease.

Although progress in early detection and treatment has steadily increased breast cancer survival rates, a diagnosis of breast cancer can be emotionally upsetting on many levels. Belcher is examining how breast cancer can influence the everyday lives of couples coping with this medical condition.

"Significant stress and adjustment problems often are present in both the patients and spouses as she undergoes treatment, and family roles and daily routines change," Belcher says. "Even after treatment is completed, couples may deal with concerns about recurrence or struggle with transitioning back to the way life was before breast cancer."

At Christiana Care Health System's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Newark, Del., Belcher is conducting a diary study in which the couples are asked to respond daily to questions about mood, intimacy, and how often emotional and practical support is provided to and received from both patients and their spouses.

The patients and their spouses complete an initial questionnaire shortly after the patient's surgery. Then the couples are asked to complete morning/nightly electronic surveys using, for example, personal digital assistants (PDAs) for 14 consecutive days. Couples also will be followed up six months later.

"This fellowship will allow our team to examine research designs capable of capturing the effects of support transactions as they unfold in daily life," Belcher says. "We hope this will offer new insights into how cancer occurs in a shared, interpersonal context -- whereby patients and their non-patient partners can both provide support to and receive support from each other throughout the cancer experience. Understanding daily support between couples has important implications for improving couple-focused therapies and advancing our understanding of interpersonal processes."

Belcher's project is an integral part of an ongoing collaboration funded by the National Cancer Institute between UD's Department of Psychology and Christiana Care Health System.

The partnership grant not only contributes to the University's health initiatives and the growing Delaware Health Sciences Alliance, but also provides a unique infrastructure to support graduate research and clinical training, according to Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, Belcher's adviser.

Laurenceau, associate professor of psychology, and Larry Cohen, professor of psychology, are co-principal investigators on the grant at UD, working with Scott Siegel, director of cancer psychology at Christiana Care's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center.

"Cancer is a 'we-disease' in that it affects not only patients but also their significant others," Laurenceau notes. "Amber is finding that daily support provided by partners to patients, as well as patients to partners, help both members of the couple maintain connection through this adversity. We are enormously proud of Amber's hard work and accomplishments."

Belcher joins several other recent UD recipients of the Kirschstein fellowship including Johanna Bick, doctoral student in psychology working with Mary Dozier, Amy E. du Pont Chair of Child Development; Damion Grasso, doctoral student in psychology working with Prof. Robert F. Simons; and Stephan Lindsey, postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Eleftherios Papoutsakis, Eugene du Pont Chair of Chemical Engineering and faculty fellow at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

The late Ruth L. Kirschstein, after whom the award is named, made history as the first woman to direct an NIH institute -- the National Institute of General Medical Sciences -- and later served as acting director of NIH.

Kirschstein was a strong advocate for research training, especially interdisciplinary predoctoral programs and programs to increase the number of minority scientists in emerging areas. In 2002, Congress renamed the National Research Service Award program in her honor.

Article by Tracey Bryant
Photo by Evan Krape

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Kingwood residents join in fight to end breast cancer - Houston Community Newspapers

Posted: 02 Mar 2010 10:13 AM PST

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Breast Cancer

Tuesday, March 2, 2010