“Time to think pink - Port Huron Times-Herald” plus 4 more |
- Time to think pink - Port Huron Times-Herald
- Daily Housework Cuts Down Chances of Cancer - Softpedia
- "Prudent" Diet Linked to Lower Breast Cancer Risk - ABC News
- Healthy habits to help prevent breast cancer - MSNBC
- Molecular Imaging Holds Promise For Early Intervention In Common ... - Science Daily
| Time to think pink - Port Huron Times-Herald Posted: 01 Oct 2009 10:45 AM PDT Stylists at two area salons aren't sporting shocks of pink hair to make a fashion statement or draw attention to their business. They're doing it to save lives and honor people they know, said Kelly Strilcov, owner of Salon PiZazz!, at 104 Huron Ave. in Port Huron. Salon PiZazz! and Artistry Salon, 1661 Range Road in Kimball Township, are selling pink hair extensions for $10 to benefit the Port Huron Hospital Foundation Donna Niester Breast Cancer Fund and recognize October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Salon PiZazz! has done this every year since it opened in 2007, but this time there's a more personal reason for stylists to raise money and awareness about the disease, which the American Cancer Society estimates will kill 1,350 Michigan patients and affect 6,480 new ones this year. Cathy Wenzel, the salon's receptionist -- and longtime friend of Strilcov -- was diagnosed this year with breast cancer. Strilcov sounded choked up as she explained the situation, and added Wenzel is on leave from the salon. "Her mom was the first one in to get hair extensions," Strilcov said. Artistry Salon's owner, Sherry Bushaw, is friends with Strilcov and first did the extensions last year, Artistry stylist Lisa Fuhrman said. Fuhrman personally does the extensions in honor of her uncle, who died at age 32 of male breast cancer, and her aunt -- not the wife of the same uncle -- who is a breast cancer survivor. "I think everybody's been touched by breast cancer," Fuhrman said. Both salons will be at Port Huron Hospital Women's Wellness Place, with the Artistry Salon appearing each Monday through October, and Salon PiZazz! there Oct. 8, 15, 20, 22 and 27. Lee-Perry Belleau, executive director of Studio 1219, 1219 Military St. in Port Huron, said for him, the variety of events and fundraisers the studio is holding this month honor his grandmother, who had a mastectomy in her 40s, and lived into her 80s. This is the third year Deborah Green of Marysville will be entering her work in the studio's bra-decorating contest, which supports breast cancer screening programs at Port Huron Hospital and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Port Huron. Green's sister has lung cancer, and she participates to recognize cancer in general. She said her story might be a lot like those of other people participating in breast cancer awareness events. "I think that's what it starts out as, something to recognize whoever the cancer patient (you know) is, but then you love it so much, you keep doing it," Green said.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Daily Housework Cuts Down Chances of Cancer - Softpedia Posted: 01 Oct 2009 11:14 AM PDT Staying in the best physical condition possible is extremely beneficial for the health and overall wellbeing, as countless studies have shown throughout the years. However, staying fit also plays an important role in decreasing the chances of developing breast cancer, also known as women's silent enemy. As a new study quoted by the Daily Mail says, doing physically stimulating chores around the house every single day past menopause decreases the chances of getting cancer. Women who do a fair amount of housework every day are 17 percent less exposed to the risk of breast cancer, as opposed to those ladies who rarely leave the sofa or spend their spare time in less-engaging activities, researchers have found. However, it seems a distinction must be made here in the degree of difficulty of the task performed, since only medium-intensity to vigorous chores will return results in terms of cutting down the chances of cancer. "But not any sort of exercise will do. Scientists prescribe 'moderate-to-vigorous' activities such as heavy housework, gardening and hiking. Tennis, cycling, swimming, brisk walking and fast dancing, aerobics, and jogging also cut the mustard. But 'light intensity' pursuits such as bowling, table tennis, fishing, slow walking and light gardening do not make the grade." the Daily Mail writes. However, previous research has shown a connection between any type of exercise and the risk of developing breast cancer, as we also informed you back in March. Physically fit women are safer from cancer than their counterparts who do not work out or lead generally sedentary lives, as a study conducted between 1970 and 2001 on 14,000 women aged 20-83 has shown. What this means is that it's not necessarily housework that can protect us from breast cancer, but rather any type of exercise, one might infer. "Women in the study's lowest fitness category were nearly three times more likely to die from breast cancer than women in the most fit group. With more than 40,000 women dying each year from this disease, finding a strong association between fitness, which can be improved by the relatively inexpensive lifestyle intervention of regular physical activity, such as walking, is exciting." Dr. Steve Blair, a USC researcher and former president of the American College of Sports Medicine, was saying back in March on the findings of the study.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| "Prudent" Diet Linked to Lower Breast Cancer Risk - ABC News Posted: 01 Oct 2009 11:21 AM PDT
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and low in sweets and processed meats, may help lower the risk of breast cancer in some African-American women. In a study of more than 50,000 African-American women, researchers found that thinner and younger women who ate a generally "prudent" diet were less likely to develop breast cancer than their counterparts who maintained a more Western-style diet. There was no evidence that healthier eating lowered the risk among overweight women, or those past menopause. However, the prudent diet was linked to a generally lower risk of estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer -- an aggressive type of tumor that accounts for about one-third of breast cancers. The prudent diet is one rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and fish, and lower in red and processed meats, sweets and starchy carbohydrates, like white bread. The opposite pattern is true of the so-called Western-style diet. The new findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, add to the understanding of how these diet patterns may affect breast cancer risk in different groups of women. Past studies have suggested that the prudent diet may help lower breast cancer risk in at least some women. But there has been a lack of studies focused on black women, according to the researchers on the new work, led by Tanya Agurs-Collins of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Their findings are based on a long-term study launched in 1995 that is following the health and lifestyle habits of 50,778 black women from across the U.S. Between 1995 and 2007, 1,094 of those women were diagnosed with breast cancer. The researchers found no strong evidence that the prudent diet lowered breast cancer risk for the study group as a whole. However, when they focused on normal-weight women, they found that as scores on the prudent-diet scale rose, the risk of developing breast cancer declined. The 20 percent of women with the most prudent diets were about one-third less likely to develop the disease than their counterparts with the least prudent eating habits.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Healthy habits to help prevent breast cancer - MSNBC Posted: 01 Oct 2009 10:45 AM PDT To kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Love/Avon Army of Women — which partners with breast cancer researchers — shares the latest in nutrition and scientific discoveries to help women of all ages reduce their risk. There is nothing that you can do to ensure that you absolutely do not get breast cancer, although studies have reported there are some lifestyle choices that may help reduce breast cancer risk. Right now, some of the most important appear to be: eating a healthy diet that is low-in-fat and high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables (there is no data indicating that a specific diet, per se, can help reduce breast cancer risk); losing weight (if you are overweight); not gaining weight after menopause; getting regular exercise; and using hormone therapy to treat menopausal symptoms for the shortest time period necessary. Exercise Stress Diet Alcohol Compared to non-drinkers, women who consumed less than one drink daily had a 7 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer. Those who had one to two drinks a day had a 32 percent increased risk, while those who had three or more daily drinks had a 51 percent increased risk. The increased risk was found no matter what type of alcohol (wine, beer, etc.) a woman drank. To put this into some perspective: A woman between the ages of 60 and 69 has a 3.65 percent chance — 1 in 27 — of developing breast cancer. If she had less than one drink a day, and her risk increased by 7 percent, she would now have a 3.9 percent chance — still 1 in 27—of developing breast cancer. If she had one to two drinks a day and risk increased by 32 percent, she would now have a 4.8 percent chance — 1 in 20 — of developing breast cancer. And if she had three or more drinks a day, she would not have a 5.5 percent chance — 1 in 18 — of developing the disease. For more facts and tips on prevention, visit the Army of Women website. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Molecular Imaging Holds Promise For Early Intervention In Common ... - Science Daily Posted: 01 Oct 2009 11:07 AM PDT ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2009) — A promising new molecular imaging technique may provide physicians and patients with a noninvasive way to learn more information about a type of cancer of the uterus lining called "endometrial carcinoma"—one of the most common malignant female tumors. This research was presented in a study published in the October issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. "Endometrial carcinoma is one of the most common female malignant tumors," says Hidehiko Okazawa, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the division of medical imaging at the biomedical imaging research center at the University of Fukui in Japan and one of the lead researchers of the study. "The method of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging we used in the study is noninvasive, and it has tremendous potential to save women with endometrial carcinoma from undergoing unnecessary operations and biopsies that could sabotage their reproductive potential." If the disease is caught early enough, the five-year survival rate is higher than 90% for patients with endometrial carcinoma. PET imaging may provide physicians with a tool that lets them recognize the extent of the disease before it reaches advanced stages. This study shows that PET is a promising molecular imaging technique for personalized therapy. Molecular imaging and nuclear medicine provide the possibility of determining the invasiveness and aggressiveness of malignant tumors in the uterus earlier on, before disease progresses. With this technique, physicians gain the advantage of a more precise diagnosis along with the ability to better predict the tumor's growth patterns and plan for the most appropriate therapeutic treatment strategy. "The article in the JNM from Dr. Tsujikawa and colleagues provides an example of the unique capacity of molecular imaging to measure in vivo cancer biology," says David A. Mankoff, M.D., Ph.D., professor of radiology, medicine and bioengineering at the University of Washington and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Seattle. "Most notably, it shows how imaging multiple facets of tumor phenotype—in this case, estrogen receptor expression and glucose metabolism—can provide insight into the clinical behavior of cancer. The broad implication of this study, and other similar studies that have tested PET and molecular imaging to characterize cancer characteristics, is that imaging can help direct cancer patients toward optimized, individualized treatments." In the study, the researchers used a specialized form of PET imaging called "estrogen receptor expression imaging" for 22 patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma and nine patients with endometrial hyperplasia (a thickening of the uterine lining that is a risk factor for developing endometrial cancer) to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. All patients underwent preoperative PET scans with 18F-fluoroestradiol (18F-FES)—a tracer that has been successfully used in diagnosing breast cancer—and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) to compare differences in tracer accumulation. The researchers confirmed that endometrial carcinoma reduces estrogen dependency with accelerated glucose metabolism as it progresses to a higher stage or grade. By combining the two tracers, researchers were able to use a new index of uptake ratio that can better predict pathologic stages and aggressiveness of tumors. The results of the study were encouraging, with the combined techniques having 86% accuracy. For endocrine-related tumors (including endometrial cancer), tumors vary from well-differentiated and close in character to the tissue of origin to poorly differentiated tumors, which are aggressive and bear less resemblance to the tissue of origin. The well-differentiated tumors tend to be more slow-growing and less aggressive than poorly differentiated tumors. They also retain their endocrine function and/or responsiveness. For endometrial cancer, estrogen receptor expression is related to endocrine responsiveness and indicated by FES uptake. Poorly differentiated tumors often have increased and abnormal breakdown of glucose, indicated by FDG. The combination of the two, as indicated by the study, was better than either alone at indicating the aggressiveness of the tumor. Personalized cancer therapy involves treatment that is individualized for patients based on patient characteristics and the tumor's biology. By studying the tumor's properties, physicians can predict the tumor's path and formulate the best strategy for treating the disease. Journal reference:
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